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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. 2021
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 35,702 75,565 519,207 630,474
Without wage earners 11,654 45,324 303,297 360,275
From 1 to 9 wage earners 17,094 27,075 193,822 237,991
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,096 2,813 16,280 24,189
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,348 293 4,128 5,769
250 or more employees 510 60 1,680 2,250
Establishments 42,078 84,317 591,324 717,719
Without wage earners 15,212 52,660 346,013 413,885
From 1 to 9 wage earners 19,672 28,602 216,752 265,026
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,680 2,820 23,142 31,642
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,323 219 4,692 6,234
250 or more employees 191 16 725 932
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Central companies directory (DIRCE).
Note: From the reference date of 1 January 2019, the concept of a company changed from the legal unit to the statistical unit. Consequently, that year's results are not strictly comparable with those of previous years.

Last update: February 23, 2022.

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.