Forty thousand new businesses

More than 40 thousand new companies started business in the Netherlands in 2005. This is the largest number of new businesses ever recorded. The new companies provide work for 56.6 thousand people.

New companies, 1995–2006

Upward trend continues

The rise in the number of new establishments continued into the first quarter of 2006: 12.5 thousand new companies registered in this period. This is 500 more than in the first three months of 2005. The companies registered in 2006 provide work for 16.6 thousand people.

New companies by sector of industry, 2005

Construction up sharply

More than 8 thousand new companies were established in the construction sector in 2005. This is 2.5 thousand more than in the previous year. There are now 80 thousand companies in this sector, of which 50 thousand one-man businesses. General civil utility construction is the largest sub-sector in this respect, with 40 thousand businesses. These are mainly contractors and odd-jobbers whose main activity is repair and maintenance of dwellings and other buildings.

Strongest growth for management consultancies

The number of businesses in the category other business services has doubled in the space of ten years. In 1995 there were nearly 59 thousand companies in this sector. At the beginning of 2006 there were more than 116 thousand. Within this sector, management consultancies grew by most. In the period 1995–2005 an average five new management consultancies a day were registered. Just over 8 percent of new companies in 2005 were management consultancies; in the first quarter of 2006 this had even risen to 11 percent.

More mail order companies

Mail order companies have been mushrooming in recent years. In 2005 alone more than one thousand started business. One in five of the 5 thousand new companies in retail was an Internet shop. The total number of mail order companies rose by 1.5 thousand between 1 January 2004 and 1 January 2006, to more than 3 thousand.

Information technology

Three thousand people set up a new ICT business in the last three years. This sector counted nearly 20 thousand companies on 1 January 2006. Most were ICT consultancies or computer management agencies. In the first years of the new millennium the number of new businesses in this branch stagnated. With the substantial increase (30 percent) in 2005, this growth seems to have picked up again.

Rico Konen