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Companies and establishments on 1 January. By activity sectors and number of wage earners

Companies and establishments on 1 January. By activity sectors and number of wage earners Catalonia. 2016
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 36,568 74,309 495,635 606,512
Without wage earners 13,823 49,715 281,277 344,815
From 1 to 9 wage earners 15,876 22,211 191,557 229,644
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,143 2,135 17,319 24,597
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,356 206 4,098 5,660
250 or more employees 370 42 1,384 1,796
Establishments 41,130 80,318 548,806 670,254
Without wage earners 16,260 54,604 311,837 382,701
From 1 to 9 wage earners 18,028 23,417 209,501 250,946
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,473 2,089 23,030 30,592
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,199 182 3,870 5,251
250 or more employees 170 26 568 764
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Central companies directory (DIRCE).

Last update: October 11, 2016.

Methodological note

Definition of concepts

Company
The smallest combination of legal units constituting an organisational unit for the production of goods or services, one having certain autonomy in terms of decision-making, principally for allocating the resources it has at its disposal.
Establishment
Company (or part of a company) located in a specific geographical location at which economic activities are conducted on behalf of the company.

Methodological aspects

Information is offered on the Statistics on companies and establishments that Idescat produceson the basis of the Central Companies Directory (DIRCE) published by the INE. This operation presents the number of companies and establishments with activity in Catalonia in accordance with different criteria: by activity sectors, by legal status and by number of wage-earners. The DIRCE covers all economic activities except agricultural production and fishing, central, regional and local Administration's administrative services (including social services), the activities of property owner groups and domestic services.

It should be considered that in these statistics, when classifying companies by activity sector and number of wage-earners, reference is made to the sector and wage-earners in the company as a whole (if the company has wage-earners outside of Catalonia, they are also included).

Until the 2018 reference year, the concept of the company was coterminous with the legal unit, but it changed from 2019 on. The new statistical concept of the company has to do with the company's organisational structure, autonomy of decision and market orientation. To sum up, the economic factors of units are prioritised over a traditional vision, which is more orientated at legal aspects. The legal units that do not form part of groups of companies continue to be considered companies in their own right.

The new definition of economically active company, after Regulation 2019/2152 on European business statistics (EBS) and Implementing Regulation 2020/1197 came into force, affects the calculation of the number of companies and establishments; therefore, the data as of 1 January 2023 are not comparable with those of previous years.

You can get more information about these statistics in the methodology.