EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024

Estonia had the highest enterprise death rate of 27 EU countries in 2024, at 29.23%. Greece had the lowest, at 3.88%. The median was 7.82% and the figure for the European Union (27) was 9.2%. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Highest29.23Estonia

Lowest3.88Greece

Median7.8227 EU countries

European Union (27)9.2History

All EU countries, 2024

%. Source: Eurostat, Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	EU countries	2024 (%)	Change on 2023
1	Estonia Provisional	29.23	+18.01 pts
2	Ireland Provisional	16.86	+6.02 pts
3	Lithuania Estimated	15.57	+2.97 pts
4	Bulgaria Provisional	14.99	+7.04 pts
5	Slovakia Estimated	14.48	+4.8 pts
6	Hungary Provisional	12.84	+3.59 pts
7	Poland Estimated	12.19	+1.95 pts
8	Portugal Estimated	11.83	-0.75 pts
9	France Provisional	10.95	+0.57 pts
10	Germany Series break	10.23	+2.32 pts
11	Denmark Provisional	10.07	+1.7 pts
12	Finland Provisional	9.24	+2.35 pts
13	Luxembourg Estimated	8.35	+0.57 pts
14	Romania Provisional	7.82	+1.44 pts
15	Sweden Provisional	7.7	+1.76 pts
16	Spain Estimated	7.59	-0.21 pts
17	Slovenia Provisional	7.19	-0.41 pts
18	Latvia Estimated	7.18	-2.24 pts
19	Croatia Provisional	7.05	+0.26 pts
20	Czechia Estimated	6.61	-1.18 pts
21	Netherlands Provisional	6.52	+1.69 pts
22	Italy Estimated	6.42	-0.05 pts
23	Cyprus Provisional	5.9	+0.22 pts
24	Belgium Provisional	5.67	+1.06 pts
25	Austria Provisional	5.31	-0.47 pts
26	Malta Provisional	4.41	-6.82 pts
27	Greece Provisional	3.88	+0.64 pts

Other periods

2024
2023
2022
2021

About this ranking

Enterprise deaths in the year as a percentage of the enterprises active in the same year. A death is an enterprise that stopped trading and was not reactivated within two years.

Eurostat and OECD harmonised business demography. The latest year is provisional until the two-year reactivation window has passed. Not an insolvency rate, and not comparable with establishment_exit_rate, which counts closed US business locations.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the EU countries are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

Eurostat. Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

Eurostat, European Commission. (2026). Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size) (EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table

MLA 9

Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size), EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024. Eurostat, European Commission, 2 Oct. 2026, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-death-rate/eu-countries. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

Eurostat, European Commission. 2026. Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size). EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-death-rate/eu-countries.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2026) Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size), EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-death-rate/eu-countries (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_enterprise_2024,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd\_size): EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-death-rate/eu-countries. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd\_size). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd\_size/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - Eurostat, European Commission
TI  - Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size): EU countries by enterprise death rate, 2024
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/02
PB  - Eurostat, European Commission
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-death-rate/eu-countries
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-death-rate/eu-countries.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

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Questions

Which EU country has the highest enterprise death rate?

Estonia, with 29.23% in 2024, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest enterprise death rate?

Greece, with 3.88% in 2024.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: Eurostat, European Commission, Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, death rate, percentage of active enterprises (bd_size). Retrieved 2026-10-12.