Insee Première · February 2023 · n° 1936

The pace of business births slowed in 2022

In 2022, the number of business births in France reached a new record with 1,071,900 births. However, the pace of business births slowed, with an increase of 2% in 2022 after +17% the previous year. Micro-entrepreneurs' registrations (+3%) and companies’ births (+5%) increased at a slower pace than in 2021. Conventional sole proprietorships’ births fell back sharply (-7%).

Business births continued to grow strongly in many sectors, particularly in professional, scientific and technical activities (+15%), in administrative and support service activities (+23%) and in “other household services” (+15%). However, they fell sharply in several sectors, notably in transportation and storage (-35%) and in wholesale and retail trade (-14%).

In metropolitan France, business births increased the most in Corsica, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Île-de-France, but declined in particular in Normandie, Hauts-de-France and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.