The rate of “enterprise births” in Cyprus in 2021 stood at 10.2%, while the rate of “enterprise deaths” stood at 6.3%, according to data published by Eurostat, the statistical service of the European Union, which for the first time has published detailed statistics on “business demography”.

The rate of enterprise births in the EU was 10.7% while the preliminary rate of enterprise deaths stood at 8.5% in 2021.

In most EU countries more companies were created than dissolved. The exceptions to this were Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Poland, Denmark and Germany where the number of enterprises dissolved surpassed the number of companies created.

In 2021, the highest enterprise birth rates among EU countries were observed in Lithuania (20.2%), France (16.2%) and Malta and Portugal (both 14.4%).

The lowest rates were registered in Estonia (3.1%), Austria (6.0%) and Greece (7.2%).

The data shows the dynamic of the service economy, e.g. for ‘education’ or ‘arts, entertainment and recreation’ where, in both cases, birth rates were above 10% in 18 out of 27 member states.

The average employment size of newly born enterprises in 2021 varied between 0.4 persons in the Netherlands and 2.3 persons in Lithuania. At the EU level, the average size of newly born enterprises was 1.1 persons, while in Cyprus this average was at 1 person.

As for enterprise preliminary death rates, the lowest rates among EU countries were registered in Greece (2.2%), Belgium (3.6%) and the Netherlands (4.2%).

Estonia registered the highest death rate at 23.4%, followed by Lithuania with 22.6% and Bulgaria with 17.6%.