Business demography, European standard; legal form, SIC2008

View full table Show description
SIC 2008 Legal forms Enterprises Total (aantal) Enterprises Births (aantal) Enterprises Deaths (aantal) Enterprise population Persons employed (aantal) Enterprise population Employees (aantal) Newly born enterprises Persons employed (aantal) Newly born enterprises Employees (aantal) Non-surviving enterprises Persons employed (aantal) Non-surviving enterprises Employees (aantal)
476 Shops selling recreation goods Total legal forms all nationalities 6,167 153 258 33,849 28,071 225 151 257 43
Sole proprietorship 2,955 68 141 6,065 2,880 52 19 128 21
Limited liability enterprises 1,328 53 35 21,034 20,777 133 123 8 .
Partnership, etc. 1,884 32 82 6,750 4,414 39 10 121 .
7721 Renting of recreational goods Total legal forms all nationalities . . . . . . . . .
Sole proprietorship . . . . . . . . .
Limited liability enterprises . . . . . . . . .
Partnership, etc. . . . . . . . . .
R Culture, sports and recreation Total legal forms all nationalities 128,871 10,657 4,981 180,090 106,571 6,459 276 1,700 52
Sole proprietorship 112,368 9,406 4,105 69,527 5,311 5,466 38 1,333 9
Limited liability enterprises 7,012 407 288 84,463 83,358 263 210 33 .
Partnership, etc. 9,491 844 588 26,099 17,903 730 29 335 .
93 Sports and recreation Total legal forms all nationalities 21,582 1,790 1,058 84,573 72,027 1,153 216 421 34
Sole proprietorship 13,107 1,118 612 12,622 4,126 659 . 232 9
Limited liability enterprises 3,770 239 141 59,412 58,957 188 165 12 8
Partnership, etc. 4,705 433 305 12,539 8,944 306 . 177 17
Source: CBS.
Explanation of symbols

Table explanation


This table includes information on business demography according to the European standard. Figures in this table are also submitted in this form to Eurostat. Information concerns the population of active enterprises, enterprise births and deaths, and the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year survivors after birth, broken down by size class based on number of employees and by the National Classification of Economic Activity 2008 (NCEA 2008, based on NACE Rev 2.0). Data also includes persons employed and employees in active enterprises, births and deaths, as well as persons employed for surviving births at the start and end of the survival period.

Data available from: 2010

Status of the figures:
The figures in this table are final for 2010 through 2022. The figures for 2023 are provisional.
Only the data on Dissolved companies for 2023 will be adjusted.

Changes as of September 4, 2025:
The provisional figures for 2023 have been added, and the figures for 2022 have been adjusted and finalized.

When will new figures be released?
Figures on a new reporting year (T – 2) will be published in July of the current year T.

Description topics

Enterprises
Total
Enterprise:
The actual transactor in the production process characterised by independence in deciding on that process and in offering its products to third parties.

It follows from this definition, and in particular from the element of independence, that an enterprise can comprise more than one establishment, but also more than one legal unit. (Legal units include both natural and legal persons.) This is the case when the separate establishments or legal units do not operate independently. Conversely, it is possible to distinguish between different parts within a legal unit that operate independently in terms of production. These then constitute as many enterprises as defined. The latter is especially the case for larger groups with diverse activities.
When a unit thus defined extends over several countries, the Dutch part will be considered as a whole company for the sake of national statistics.

In official CBS terminology the enterprise as defined here is called the enterprise unit (BE), so that there is no confusion with the term enterprise used in common parlance, which is not very precise in this respect.

The statistical unit enterprise is an operationalisation of the kind-of-activity unit, as defined by Eurostat. This definition combines two requirements that may conflict: contributing to one activity versus corresponding to one or more operational units. The Netherlands gives priority to the second requirement when operationalising to the statistical enterprise unit.
Births
An enterprise birth is the creation of a new enterprise.

This means that economic criteria for an enterprise must be met: there must be information on employment or turnover of the enterprise. Furthermore, it is important that the enterprise is actually new. The continuation of one or more existing enterprises is therefore not an enterprise birth.

There is no enterprise birth in the case of
- enterprises that are created as a result of a merger, division or demerger;
- takeover or privatisation of part of a company;
- change of name;
- change of legal form;
- change of ownership;
- gradual change of activity;
- relocation;
- reactivation.
Deaths
An enterprise death is the termination of an existing enterprise.

This means that there is no question of a significant part of the activities being continued by another enterprise. An enterprise death only occurs when the enterprise (with the associated employment) no longer belongs to the enterprise population. The best-known example of this is bankruptcy.

There is no enterprise death in the case of:
- enterprises that disappear as a result of a merger, division or demerger;
- takeover or privatisation of part of an enterprise;
- change of name;
- change of legal form;
- change of owner;
- gradual change of activity
- relocation;
- reactivation.
Enterprise population
Persons employed
The number of persons employed consists of:
- employees and directors who are on the payroll;
- employees who are on the payroll of another enterprise or institution, but work in the enterprise's own place of business and as such are in fact part of the workforce (agency staff);
- employed proprietors, partners, associates and cooperating family members;
- agency staff. Loaned personnel (employees on the payroll, but working for another enterprise or institution) are not included under persons employed.
Employees
The number of employees is determined on the basis of the employees on the payroll excluding director-major shareholders. The number of employees per company is calculated from wage tax data from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration.
Newly born enterprises
Persons employed
The number of persons employed consists of:
- employees and directors who are on the payroll;
- employees who are on the payroll of another enterprise or institution, but work in the enterprise's own place of business and as such are in fact part of the workforce (agency staff);
- employed proprietors, partners, associates and cooperating family members;
- agency staff. Loaned personnel (employees on the payroll, but working for another enterprise or institution) are not included under persons employed.
Employees
The number of employees is determined on the basis of the employees on the payroll excluding director-major shareholders. The number of employees per company is calculated from wage tax data from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration.
Non-surviving enterprises
Persons employed
The number of persons employed consists of:
- employees and directors who are on the payroll;
- employees who are on the payroll of another enterprise or institution, but work in the enterprise's own place of business and as such are in fact part of the workforce (agency staff);
- employed proprietors, partners, associates and cooperating family members;
- agency staff. Loaned personnel (employees on the payroll, but working for another enterprise or institution) are not included under persons employed.
Employees
The number of employees is determined on the basis of the employees on the payroll excluding director-major shareholders. The number of employees per company is calculated from wage tax data from the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration.