Business demography: Update 2016

02.06.2016

In 2015, the GWS started a first attempt to project businesses by economic activities based on closures and foundations of companies. The data set for this business demography was provided by the Federal Statistical Office. By using the data update of 2016, the projection was renewed including a more sophisticated method. The number of different economic activities was increased from 17 to 79. The higher level of detail offered the opportunity to explain putative contradictory developments.

The economic activity “information and communication” should grow in the number of businesses due to industry 4.0. However, the latest data shows only a low increase in this area. The development can be explained by a more in-depth analysis. The number of businesses are declining in the industry sectors “publishing activities” and “information service activities” that also belong to “information and communication”. The overall increase of businesses in this section can thus almost solely be assigned to “computer programming, consultancy and related activities”. Within this sub-category, the number of companies grows by more than 10,000.

More results can be found in the GWS Discussion Paper 16/6 that has just been released (in German language only).

A regular update with new data for the coming years is planned including a continuous revision and improvement of the applied method.

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