Business demography

For the sixth consecutive year, the balance between births and deaths (net rate of turnover) was negative (-1.4%) but lower than that recorded in 2013 (-1.8%).

After four years of decline, in 2014 the percentage of businesses survival after one year grew. In fact 76.8% of businesses born in the previous year were still working, while in 2013 the survival rate was 76.1%.

In 2014 there were 274,489 business births, approximately 2,000 companies fewer than the previous year, but the birth rate remained unchanged at 7.1%.

In 2014, 329,585 enterprises ceased their activities. The overall death rate was 8.6%; although it was higher than the birth rate it was still slightly down ( -0.2 percentage points ) in comparison with the previous year.

The births and deaths involved about 780,000 jobs, with a negative balance of 105 thousand persons employed. This result is due to the difference between 337,000 jobs created by births and 442,000 jobs lost by deaths.

The trend of the birth rates is due to the different dynamics at the sector of activity level; compared to 2013, only the enterprises belonging to Other Services sectors were growing (+0.4 percentage points), while the birth rate decreased in the Manufacturing (-0.1 percentage points) and also in Construction and Trade (-0.3 percentage points each).

The death rate decreased in all sectors, especially in Construction (from 12 to 11.5%) and in Trade (from 8.9 to 8.5%).