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Companies and establishments on 1 January. By activity sectors and number of wage earners

Companies and establishments on 1 January. By activity sectors and number of wage earners Catalonia. 2020
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 36,195 76,123 525,454 637,772
Without wage earners 11,926 46,418 308,589 366,933
From 1 to 9 wage earners 17,039 26,569 192,730 236,338
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,282 2,756 18,023 26,061
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,435 314 4,375 6,124
250 or more employees 513 66 1,737 2,316
Establishments 42,512 84,729 596,121 723,362
Without wage earners 15,398 53,669 349,276 418,343
From 1 to 9 wage earners 19,621 28,026 215,526 263,173
From 10 to 49 wage earners 5,893 2,762 25,678 34,333
From 50 to 249 wage earners 1,404 252 4,882 6,538
250 or more employees 196 20 759 975
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 19, 2021.

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.