EU countries by enterprise deaths

France had the highest enterprise deaths of 27 EU countries in 2021, at 522,427. Luxembourg had the lowest, at 2,862. The median was 34,906 and the figure for the European Union (27) was 2.44 million. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.

Highest522,427France

Lowest2,862Luxembourg

Median34,90627 EU countries

European Union (27)2,437,036History

Map of EU countries, 2021

Under 15K
15K to 31K
31K to 57K
57K to 120K
120K and over

count, 2021. Source: Eurostat, Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size). Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain).

All EU countries, 2021

count. Source: Eurostat, Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size). Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	EU countries	2021 count	Change on 2020
1	France Series break	522,427	+30.1%
2	Poland	337,223	+53.3%
3	Italy	266,496	-0.4%
4	Spain Series break	250,227	-19%
5	Germany	219,659	-7.3%
6	Portugal	128,526	-3.9%
7	Netherlands	83,036	-36%
8	Czechia	70,821	-14.4%
9	Hungary	69,064	+58.3%
10	Sweden Series break	68,579	+8.9%
11	Romania	66,926	+13.1%
12	Slovakia	43,096	-1.6%
13	Lithuania	37,566	-4.9%
14	Austria	34,906	+22.6%
15	Belgium	31,950	-5.6%
16	Bulgaria	31,715	-27.3%
17	Denmark	31,030	+2.9%
18	Finland Series break	28,939	-12.6%
19	Ireland	28,750	-3.2%
20	Greece	18,687	n/a
21	Latvia	16,421	-5.9%
22	Croatia	14,399	-2.3%
23	Slovenia	12,311	-14.3%
24	Estonia Series break	12,158	+4.2%
25	Malta	5,126	+2.6%
26	Cyprus	4,136	+4.4%
27	Luxembourg	2,862	+3.2%

Other periods

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020

About this ranking

Enterprises that stopped trading during the year and were not reactivated within two years. Enterprises absorbed by a merger or a takeover are not deaths.

Counts enterprises, which can run several local units, under the harmonised Eurostat and OECD business demography rules. Not the same as active_companies (the INE business register count for Spain) or employer_firms (US firms with employees). A death is not an insolvency: most enterprises that close do so without a formal insolvency procedure. The latest years are estimated from expected reactivations and are provisional.

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, enterprise deaths, number (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, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size) (EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021) [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, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size), EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021. Eurostat, European Commission, 2 Oct. 2026, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021. 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, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size). EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021. 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-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021.

Harvard

Eurostat, European Commission (2026) Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size), EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{eurostat_eu_countries_by_enterprise_2021,
  author = {{Eurostat, European Commission}},
  title = {{Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, enterprise deaths, number (bd\_size): EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021}},
  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-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021. Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, enterprise deaths, number (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, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size): EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021
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-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/enterprise-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021.
N1  - Publisher attribution: Eurostat. Business demography by size class and NACE Rev. 2 activity, industry, construction and market services, all size classes, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/bd_size/default/table. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/enterprise-deaths/eu-countries?period=2021" width="760" height="500" title="EU countries by enterprise deaths, 2021, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank EU countries by enterprise deaths using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"enterprise_deaths","level":"country","within":"European Union (27)","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=enterprise_deaths&level=country&within=European%20Union%20(27)&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which EU country has the highest enterprise deaths?

France, with 522,427 in 2021, according to Eurostat, European Commission.

Which EU country has the lowest enterprise deaths?

Luxembourg, with 2,862 in 2021.

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, enterprise deaths, number (bd_size). Retrieved 2026-10-12.