EE Companies and Establishments

The Statistics on companies and establishments present the results for Catalonia of the annual exploitation of the INE's Central Business Register (DIRCE). As well as information on the companies with a head office in Catalonia, also produced by the INE, these statistics include tables that account for the number of companies with economic activity in Catalonia, understood to be companies with establishments in Catalonia It also tabulates the establishments located in Catalonia, regardless of whether they belong to companies with their head offices in Catalonia or not.

The DIRCE contains basic information (identification, location in the territory and classification by dimension and sector of economic activity) on the companies and establishments located in Spain, on the basis of administrative sources and statistical files, complemented with information originating from the INE's own operations. The DIRCE covers all economic activities apart from fishing and agriculture, Central, regional and local administration's administrative services (including Social Security), household activities and activities of extraterritorial organizations.

Until the reference year 2018, the concept of a company was coterminous with that of a legal unit. From 2019 on, a new statistical concept of the company is included, affecting the company's organisational structure, its autonomy of decision-making and the company's market orientation. To sum up, the economic factors of units are prioritised over the traditional view, which was more orientated at legal aspects. Legal units that are not part of groups of companies continue to be considered companies in their own right. Therefore, from year 2019, data are presented with both definitions of company.

Additionally, 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 from the moment of application, as of 1 January 2023, are not comparable with those of the previous years.

The reference date for the data is January 1 of the corresponding year and the available series began in the year 2000. For the 2000 to 2009 period, the information is tabulated using the CCAE-93 Rev.1 (the results for the years 2008 and 2009 are published using both classifications). From 2010 the economic activity will only be coded using the CCAE-2009.