Back Q3 2022: Business registrations and bankruptcies up

17 November 2022

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Registrations of new businesses in the EU increased by 2.6% in the third quarter of 2022 compared with the previous quarter, after previously dropping slightly in the first two quarters of this year. 

As for declarations of bankruptcies, they increased again for the fifth quarter in a row, following a 9.6% drop in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2021. The most recent data show that in the third quarter of 2022, declarations of bankruptcies increased significantly by 16.3% compared with the second quarter of 2022. 

This information comes from data published by Eurostat today. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
 

Trendline chart: Registration of businesses and declaration of bankruptcies in the EU; Q1 2015- Q3 2022; seasonally adjusted (2015=100)

Source dataset: sts_rb_q

In the third quarter of 2022, compared with the previous quarter, new business registrations mainly increased in the ‘industry’ (+8.1%); ‘information and communication’ (+2.3%) and ‘transport and storage’ (+1.8%) sectors. 

The number of registrations of businesses in the first three quarters of 2022 was higher than in the pre-pandemic period of 2019. Compared with the same quarter of 2019, the third quarter of 2022 showed a 6.2% increase in the registrations of new businesses. 

Declarations of bankruptcies decreased only in transport activities in Q3 2022

Compared with the previous quarter, the ‘transport and storage’ sector was the only sector registering a decrease (-5.4%) in bankruptcies in the third quarter of 2022, while all other activities saw increases. The highest rise in bankruptcies was registered in the ‘accommodation and food services’ (+24.0%), ‘financial and insurance activities’ (+17.8%) and ‘industry' (+16.2%). The bankruptcies in the ‘information and communication’ sector increased the least, by +1.6%.

The largest drops in the number of bankruptcies comparing the third quarter of 2022 and the period before the pandemic (same quarter of 2019) were recorded in ‘construction’, ‘industry’ and ‘information and communication’. 

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