In the pandemic year 2020, the number of start-ups in the liberal professions (-5.6 %) and the commercial sector (-11.7 %) decreased compared to 2019. In contrast, the number of start-ups in agriculture and forestry increased (+8.4 %). Overall, the negative trend in the total number of start-ups in Germany has continued.
In the liberal professions, however, the decline in the number of start-ups was less severe than in the commercial sector. As a result, the structure of the economic activities shift towards non-commercial activities: The share of freelance start-ups increased from 23.5 % 5 years ago to 26.7 % of all start-ups today.
Also, changes regarding the branches can be observed within the commercial sector: In 2020, the share of start-ups in the health and social services sector and agriculture, forestry and fishing increased compared with the previous year. In turn, particularly fewer start-ups were recorded in the construction industry.
Overall, the structural change towards the (knowledge-based) service economy continued despite the pandemic-induced market restrictions in many service sectors. Comparably many start-ups were recorded in the relatively small agriculture sector, forestry and fishing in the Corona pandemic year 2020.
Share of women increases in business start-ups in the liberal professions
and commerce
Women accounted for more than half of the approximately 88,400 freelance business start-ups in the pandemic year: Their share increased slightly from 52.6% (2019) to 52.8% (2020). Among sole proprietorships, the share of women increased from 29.4 % to 30.7 %.
All data on business start-ups in the commercial and non-commercial sectors – including the liberal professions – are available in the Institute for SME Research (www.ifm-bonn.org).
Criteria of this press release:
Business and commerce, Journalists, Scientists and scholars, Students, Teachers and pupils, all interested persons
Economics / business administration
transregional, national
Research results
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).