Data inventory: which figures we publish and where they come from

Our German company database

Active businesses; closed or dissolved records excluded. Sources: Overture Maps, Market Master Data Register (MaStR), GLEIF, company websites, HWK/BStBK directories.

• 2,853,449businesses in total (as of 15 October 2026)
• 2,345,988of them with a phone number
• 2,165,028of them with a website
• 826,078of them with their own email address

Email addresses shared by three or more businesses (e.g. general shared inboxes) are not counted in the email figure. An existing contact does not guarantee reachability. As of 15 October 2026.

Germany in figures

• 3,543,865businesses in Germany (legal units, reference year 2024)
• 3,011,214of them with fewer than 10 employees
• 18,632of them with 250 or more employees
• 861,720of them limited companies (e.g. GmbH, AG)
• 30,741,954businesses in the 26 other EU member states (Eurostat 2024)

Germany: Destatis, business register – legal units by legal form and by employee size class, reference year 2024, retrieved on 13 October 2026. EU: Eurostat, Structural Business Statistics (sbs_ovw_act), enterprises in industry, construction and market services, EU-27 33,978,235 minus Germany 3,236,281. More: EU and other countries.

The 15 industries

The German company database is divided into fifteen industries. Each industry shows the number of businesses in Germany in exactly the matching economic activities – mostly from the business register at the level of WZ divisions, for e-commerce from class 47.91. That is the size of the market, not the scope of an export.

Scroll the table sideways.

The industry figures count “enterprises (EU)” under the EU enterprise definition (Destatis, business register, GENESIS table 52111-0010, reference year 2024, table updated 21 September 2026); the total of 3,543,865 counts legal units. Both come from the same official statistics but count differently – industry figures therefore cannot be added up to the total. Agriculture and municipalities come from other Destatis tables because the business register does not cover these areas.

How to read the figures

• Official statistics are not a dataset. The Destatis and Eurostat figures describe the market, not the scope of our exports.
• What matters is the field you need. How many businesses in a selection have a phone number, email address or website, we state in the quote for your selection.
• A contact is not a delivery guarantee. An existing contact detail does not mean the business can be reached through it.
• Page date is not data status. A revision of this page does not change the date of the data.

Published versions

• 15 October 2026 – own German company database

  First publication of our own figures: 2,853,449 active businesses, 2,345,988 with phone, 2,165,028 with website, 826,078 with their own email address. Sources: Overture Maps, Market Master Data Register (MaStR), GLEIF, company websites, HWK/BStBK directories.

• 13 October 2026 – industry figures by economic activity

  Each industry now shows the number of businesses in exactly its WZ divisions (Destatis, reference year 2024) instead of the figure for the whole WZ section. Countries other than Germany are now covered on one page, EU and other countries; the individual country pages have been removed.

• 11 October 2026 – industry pages revised

  Each of the 15 industry pages describes the relevant WZ positions, the public registers of the industry and the information an export does not contain.

• 9 October 2026 – launch of b2bkartei.de

  Publication of the industry structure for Germany.