Number of new firms in Catalonia is growing

The number of companies active in Catalonia in January this year was 608,981 firms, some 5.6% more than in 2014, according to the Spanish Statistical Office (INE). What’s more, the growth in the number of Catalan companies in this period is higher than in Spain as a whole, particularly among large firms. Thus, the number of companies with more than 199 employees in Catalonia grew by 12.8%, compared with 10.2% for Spain as a whole. Meanwhile, the number of companies with between 1,000 and 4,999 employees in Catalonia grew by 16.7% compared to 9.8% for the whole of Spain.

Catalonia has the highest percentage of companies in Spain

The figures from the Central Directory of Companies, (Dirce in Spanish), compiled by the INE, show that Catalonia has the highest percentage of companies in Spain, some 18.5% of the total. After Catalonia, comes the Community of Madrid, with 526,156 companies, or some 16% of the total.

The figures presented on Wednesday by the Spanish vice presidency department and the treasury ministry show an upward trend in the creation of new companies in Catalonia in the past three years compared with Spain as a whole, which has experienced a gradual “deceleration” in the registration of new companies. For the January 2014 to January 2017 period, the growth of new companies in Catalonia was 1.4% in 2015, 2% in 2016 and 2.1% in 2017. Compared with Catalonia, the whole of Spain experienced slower growth with a 2.2% increase in new firms in 2015, followed by 1.6% in 2016 and 1.4% in 2017.

However, the discrepancy between the growth of new companies in Catalonia compared to Spain as a whole is most clearly seen among large companies, with those with over 199 employees growing by 12.8% between January 2015 and January 2017 compared to 10.2% for the whole of Spain. Meanwhile, for companies with between 200 and 499 employees, the difference between Catalonia and Spain was 16% compared to 12.3%, and for firms with between 1,000 and 4,999 employees, the growth in Catalonia was 16.7% compared with 9.8% in Spain.

The only area in which Catalonia shows less growth in new businesses compared with Spain as a whole is among companies with less than 9 employees, those with 10 to 49 employees, and firms with 500 to 999 workers. In the first case, Catalonia fell by 0.6% compared to 0.2%, the rise in the percentages for companies with between 10 and 49 employees was 0.8% compared to 1.4%, and for firms with between 500 and 999 employees, the difference was a fall of 3% in Catalonia compared with growth of 2.9% in the whole of Spain.