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Companies on 1 January. By activity sectors and legal status

Companies on 1 January. By activity sectors and legal status Catalonia. 2009
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 48,510 106,410 474,442 629,362
Physical persons 15,894 41,723 261,934 319,551
Corporations 6,533 3,400 17,883 27,816
Limited companies 21,895 50,486 143,500 215,881
Others 4,188 10,801 51,125 66,114
Companies with head offices in Catalonia 47,580 105,280 466,764 619,624
Physical persons 15,850 41,498 260,332 317,680
Corporations 6,028 3,219 15,638 24,885
Limited companies 21,551 49,924 140,031 211,506
Others 4,151 10,639 50,763 65,553
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Central companies directory (DIRCE).

Last update: October 27, 2014.

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.