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Data

Businesses in the EU member states 2024

For 2024, Eurostat counts 33,978,235 enterprises in industry, construction and market services in the EU. France, Italy, Spain, Germany have the most; Germany ranks 4th with 3,236,281. Per inhabitant, Germany ranks 27th out of 27.

Reference year 2024 · Eurostat data updated 30 September 2026 · retrieved on 10/13/2026 · by Martin Adamec

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  • 33,978,235businesses in the EU-27 (2024)
  • 9.5%of them in Germany (3,236,281)
  • 75.6businesses per 1,000 inhabitants in the EU
  • 38.8businesses per 1,000 inhabitants in Germany

All 27 member states

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Number of enterprises (Eurostat indicator “Number of enterprises”, NACE B–S excluding O and S94), reference year 2024, sorted by number: Eurostat, Structural Business Statistics (sbs_ovw_act), data updated 30 September 2026. Population on 1 January 2024: Eurostat, population on 1 January (tps00001), data as of 30 September 2026. Share and values per 1,000 inhabitants calculated by b2bkartei.de.
RankCountryEnterprisesShare of EUPopulationper 1,000 inh.
1France5,445,57716.0%68,669,303 (provisional)79.3
2Italy4,652,41613.7%58,971,23078.9
3Spain3,516,79310.4%48,619,69572.3
4Germany3,236,2819.5%83,456,04538.8
5Poland2,821,1708.3%36,620,97077.0
6Netherlands2,424,2977.1%17,942,942135.1
7Portugal1,470,9374.3%11,204,347131.3
8Czechia1,366,9274.0%10,900,555125.4
9Romania1,030,6033.0%19,067,576 (estimated)54.1
10Greece964,8512.8%10,375,76493.0
11Belgium931,4052.7%11,817,09678.8
12Hungary905,3242.7%9,584,62794.5
13Sweden873,8782.6%10,551,70782.8
14Slovakia682,0292.0%5,424,687125.7
15Austria628,0581.8%9,158,75068.6
16Finland478,7081.4%5,603,85185.4
17Bulgaria415,0871.2%6,445,48164.4
18Ireland410,2051.2%5,351,68176.6
19Denmark379,3061.1%5,961,24963.6
20Lithuania371,2811.1%2,885,891128.7
21Croatia252,1250.7%3,861,96765.3
22Slovenia208,0780.6%2,123,94998.0
23Estonia157,5470.5%1,374,687114.6
24Latvia152,7060.4%1,878,57581.3
25Cyprus94,3790.3%966,36597.7
26Malta59,4960.2%563,443105.6
27Luxembourg48,7710.1%672,05072.6
EU-2733,978,235100.0%449,489,862 (estimated, provisional)75.6

You can request company data for countries other than Germany on the page EU and other countries. The population figure is provisional for France and estimated for Romania (Eurostat flags).

What the table shows

  • Four states account for 49.6% of enterprises: France (5,445,577), Italy (4,652,416), Spain (3,516,793), Germany (3,236,281).
  • Per inhabitant, the range runs from 38.8 in Germany to 135.1 in Netherlands. The highest values are in Netherlands, Portugal, Lithuania, Slovakia, Czechia.
  • Germany has 18.6% of the EU’s population but 9.5% of its enterprises: 38.8 per 1,000 inhabitants compared with 75.6 on EU average.

Why density should be read with caution

The figures are supplied by the national statistical offices, and how completely micro-businesses are covered may differ between countries. For Germany, a coverage threshold applies in reference year 2024: only units with a turnover of more than 22,000 euros or at least one employee subject to social insurance contributions or in marginal employment are counted (Destatis, Qualitätsbericht Statistisches Unternehmensregister 2024 (erschienen 01.12.2025)). Differences between countries may therefore also stem from coverage and not only from economic structure. We do not derive causes from the table.

Definitions

  • Enterprise in the sense of EU business statistics: the smallest combination of legal units that decides independently on its activities. For Germany, this gives 3,236,281 – fewer than the 3,543,865 legal units in the German business register, which also cover further economic activities.
  • Scope: NACE sections B to S excluding public administration (O) and membership organisations (S94). Agriculture and forestry (A) and private households (T) are outside these sections and not included.
  • Per 1,000 inhabitants: enterprises divided by the population on 1 January 2024, multiplied by 1,000, rounded to one decimal place.

How to cite

The figures come from Eurostat; you may reuse them with attribution. Suggestion:

b2bkartei.de: Businesses in the EU member states 2024. Based on Eurostat, sbs_ovw_act and tps00001 (data updated 30 September 2026). Retrieved on 13 October 2026. https://b2bkartei.de/en/daten/unternehmen-in-der-eu/

Company data from another EU country?

For countries other than Germany, we compile data on request and tell you beforehand what can be delivered from public sources.

EU and other countries · How the price is set · Businesses by federal state · Business births and deaths