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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. 2018
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 38,613 75,418 515,989 630,020
Without wage earners 13,425 47,197 295,817 356,439
From 1 to 9 wage earners 17,827 25,364 195,667 238,858
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,520 2,555 18,490 26,565
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,431 258 4,471 6,160
250 or more employees 410 44 1,544 1,998
Establishments 43,062 81,762 572,342 697,166
Without wage earners 15,949 52,478 328,965 397,392
From 1 to 9 wage earners 19,799 26,524 213,644 259,967
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,843 2,523 24,658 33,024
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,301 212 4,387 5,900
250 or more employees 170 25 688 883
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Central companies directory (DIRCE).

Last update: October 26, 2018.

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.