1. Business Demography Indicators for the euro area
Heinz Dieden
European Central Bank – DG Statistics
OECD Structural Business Statistics Expert Meeting May 2007, Paris

2. Introduction Why ECB interest in statistics on enterprise demography?1
Introduction
Why ECB interest in statistics on enterprise demography?
Dynamics of economic branch (e.g. IT industries)
Employment effects
Climate of entrepreneurship
Competition among economies
Short-term and structural analysis
NO euro area data available for this purpose

3. Initiative of the WGGES2
Initiative of the WGGES
Working Group on General Economic Statistics
ECB and all EU National Central Banks (NCBs)
Co-ordination with Eurostat
2005: work on 5 business demography indicators
Eurostat definition as targets:
Enterprise births of which: real births
Enterprise deaths of which: bankruptcies
Stock of enterprises
Breakdown for NACE A6 categories

4. Total enterprise births Total enterprises deaths3
Results from the stocktaking (1) Euro area country coverage rates
Total enterprise births
Of which ‘real’ births
Total enterprises deaths
Of which bankruptcies
Stocks of enterprises
Annual
88.6 %
72.5 %
67.2 %
96.2 % 1)
98.0 %
Quarterly
69.5 %
30.4 %
48.1 %
63.1 %
17.7 %
1) Includes stock data for Italy on bankruptcies, the country coverage excluding Italy is 78.5%.

5. Results from the stocktaking (1I)4
Results from the stocktaking (1I)
Timeliness (for larger countries)
Quarterly data: 1-3 months
Annual data: 2-6 months
Sources
Administrative register or statistical business register maintained by the NSI
For IT and AT: chambers of commerce
 Therefore data meet national quality standards and are validated for publication

6. Total enterprise births Total enterprises deaths5
Results from the stocktaking (III) – Euro area
Total enterprise births
Of which ‘real’ births
Total enterprises deaths
Of which bankruptcies
Stocks of enterprises
Level (‘000)
Coverage (%)
2000
1,998.8
88.6%
370.6
35.0%
1,393.4
67.2%
100.0
78.5%
13,030.3
66.8%
2001
1,991.1
359.8
1,409.5
106.7
13,568.0
69.9%
2002
1,950.3
659.2
46.3%
1,420.6
142.7
16,887.7
98.0%
2003
2,036.8
88.2%
1,374.8
74.4%
1,359.1
64.9%
167.0
17,145.1
2004
2,252.0
86.3%
1,544.2
72.5%
1,390.6
185.1
13,753.6
64.5%
2005
2,102.9
80.8%
1,500.4
1,364.3
59.4%
204.4
10,285.3
37.6%
2003 Q1
432.2
69.5% - Q2
393.3 Q3
371.6 Q4
395.6
2004 Q1
491.0
450.6
405.6
456.0
2005 Q1
465.7
454.9
398.2
410.8

7. Quarterly enterprise births (annual percentage changes)6

8. Conclusions (I) Two datasets – two approaches Eurostat WGGES/ECB7
Conclusions (I)
Two datasets – two approaches
Eurostat
Legal framework
Harmonised methodology and data
No euro area data yet; annual frequency; timeliness
WGGES/ECB
Available national data (often non-harmonised)
Annual and quarterly data
Higher timeliness

9. Conclusions (II) Based on national, non-harmonised data:8
Conclusions (II)
Based on national, non-harmonised data:
First euro area estimates for some indicators
Enterprise births: annual and quarterly
Bankruptcies: annual
Stock of enterprises: annual
 First euro area aggregates are encouraging and are a unique dataset

10. 9
Conclusions (III)
Eurostat data and WGGES data complement each other in many aspects:
Timeliness
Frequency
Availability
Where available, harmonised Eurostat data is used plus WGGES data
Euro area breakdowns according to NACE A6 not yet possible