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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. 2018
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 38,613 75,418 515,989 630,020
Physical persons 11,449 33,022 277,544 322,015
Corporations 4,423 2,195 13,416 20,034
Limited companies 20,409 35,731 172,333 228,473
Others 2,332 4,470 52,696 59,498
Companies with head offices in Catalonia 37,605 74,420 506,341 618,366
Physical persons 11,414 32,919 275,653 319,986
Corporations 4,029 2,054 11,640 17,723
Limited companies 19,869 35,142 166,898 221,909
Others 2,293 4,305 52,150 58,748
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.