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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. 2021
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 35,702 75,565 519,207 630,474
Physical persons 11,146 35,795 289,072 336,013
Corporations 3,633 1,677 10,334 15,644
Limited companies 18,874 34,125 166,468 219,467
Others 2,049 3,968 53,333 59,350
Companies with head offices in Catalonia 34,814 75,035 513,118 622,967
Physical persons 11,143 35,777 288,776 335,696
Corporations 3,212 1,560 8,896 13,668
Limited companies 18,396 33,821 162,302 214,519
Others 2,063 3,877 53,144 59,084
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.