EU enterprise birth and death rates
In 2023 the EU enterprise birth rate was 10.5% and the death rate 8.5%: about 3.5 million new businesses were created against around 2.8 million that closed, leaving a net gain. The newly born enterprises created roughly 3.7 million jobs that year.
Source: Eurostat — More businesses opened than dissolved in the EU in 2023 (business demography) (2023)
What it means
More businesses opened than closed across the EU in 2023, with births outpacing deaths by two percentage points and adding millions of jobs. For an operator the figure is a useful read on business-environment churn: high turnover means both fresh competition and fresh suppliers and customers entering the market every year.
Context
Eurostat's business demography statistics track enterprise births and deaths each year across the business economy. The 2023 birth rate of 10.5% and death rate of 8.5% are EU-wide averages; the death figures were preliminary at publication because a closure is only confirmed after a firm has been inactive for two years. In most member states births exceeded deaths, though several — including Germany, Denmark and Poland — recorded the reverse.
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