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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. 2010
Industry Construction Services Total
Companies with establishments in Catalonia 44,776 97,019 477,883 619,678
Physical persons 13,881 36,505 261,115 311,501
Corporations 6,180 3,243 17,264 26,687
Limited companies 20,682 46,901 146,046 213,629
Others 4,033 10,370 53,458 67,861
Companies with head offices in Catalonia 43,799 95,880 469,991 609,670
Physical persons 13,846 36,319 259,516 309,681
Corporations 5,687 3,061 15,120 23,868
Limited companies 20,279 46,317 142,368 208,964
Others 3,987 10,183 52,987 67,157
Source: Idescat, based on the INE's Central companies directory (DIRCE).

Last update: October 27, 2014.

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.