Business demography, European standard; legal form, SIC2008

Business demography, European standard; legal form, SIC2008

SIC 2008 Legal forms Periods 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)
722 Research on social sciences Total legal forms all nationalities 2023* 1,901 194 132 3,432 2,611 108 14 33 .
722 Research on social sciences Sole proprietorship 2023* 1,494 161 103 762 21 88 . 27 0
722 Research on social sciences Limited liability enterprises 2023* 130 9 9 1,059 1,037 2 . 0 0
722 Research on social sciences Partnership, etc. 2023* 277 24 20 1,612 1,553 18 13 5 .
7220 Research on social sciences Total legal forms all nationalities 2023* . . . . . . . . .
7220 Research on social sciences Sole proprietorship 2023* . . . . . . . . .
7220 Research on social sciences Limited liability enterprises 2023* . . . . . . . . .
7220 Research on social sciences Partnership, etc. 2023* . . . . . . . . .
Q Health and social work activities Total legal forms all nationalities 2023* 241,770 24,098 10,427 1,608,443 1,461,971 15,153 1,078 4,122 427
Q Health and social work activities Sole proprietorship 2023* 201,643 22,335 9,032 158,695 30,321 13,374 96 3,337 75
Q Health and social work activities Limited liability enterprises 2023* 18,659 832 574 345,146 338,287 746 474 224 157
Q Health and social work activities Partnership, etc. 2023* 21,468 931 821 1,104,603 1,093,363 1,033 508 561 195
88 Social work without accommodation Total legal forms all nationalities 2023* 86,768 12,775 4,576 370,132 320,523 7,881 338 1,801 191
88 Social work without accommodation Sole proprietorship 2023* 77,174 12,183 4,152 54,908 7,385 7,374 . 1,558 41
88 Social work without accommodation Limited liability enterprises 2023* 3,063 178 116 163,100 162,817 214 177 85 76
88 Social work without accommodation Partnership, etc. 2023* 6,531 414 308 152,125 150,321 293 . 158 74
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.