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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. 2022
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 35,688 76,493 529,502 641,683
Physical persons 11,303 36,231 294,962 342,496
Corporations 3,507 1,609 10,144 15,260
Limited companies 18,892 34,770 170,310 223,972
Others 1,986 3,883 54,086 59,955
Companies with head offices in Catalonia 34,811 75,923 523,489 634,223
Physical persons 11,293 36,206 294,750 342,249
Corporations 3,110 1,502 8,703 13,315
Limited companies 18,413 34,424 166,154 218,991
Others 1,995 3,791 53,882 59,668
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 17, 2023.

Statistics EE

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.

Unavailable information is represented using the symbol ":". When the value is lower than that of the minimum unit to be able to estimate the statistical operation or if it effects statistical confidentiality, the symbol used is "..".