Over the past year, the number of individual entrepreneurs and companies in the Netherlands has grown significantly. According to the Chamber of Commerce (KVK - Kamer van Koophandel), the number of business entities has increased from almost 2,2 million at the beginning to more than 2,3 million at the end of 2022.
general Statistics
An increase in the number of business entities by 100 corresponds to an increase of 5,7%. However, analysts noted that the vast majority of this increase is accounted for by individual entrepreneurs without employees - zzp'ers. Read more about forms of ownership in the Netherlands (organizational and legal forms of doing business) in our review.
As of January 1 of this year, 17% of the employed labor force in the country are individual (private) entrepreneurs without employees. Ten years ago, this figure was 10%. Over the past ten years, the working-age population has increased by 14%, the number of zzp'ers over this period has grown by 84% and exceeded 1,6 million people. According to the Chamber of Commerce, now 70% of all business entities can be classified as individual entrepreneurs.
Number of entrepreneurs by region
Most entrepreneurs are in South Holland: according to KVK, as of January 1 this year, more than 443 entrepreneurs lived in this province. South Holland also sees the strongest growth in the number of businesses, at 6,2%. South Holland is followed by Flevoland (plus 5,3%). The smallest growth in the provinces of Drenthe, Zeeland and Groningen - less than 3%.
If you look at the ratio of business entities to the number of inhabitants, then the leader is North Holland: there are more than 419 thousand entrepreneurs, this is 142 entrepreneurs per thousand inhabitants. According to the Chamber of Commerce, there are 117 entrepreneurs per thousand inhabitants in South Holland.
Publication Date: 11.05.2023
