Informations Rapides · 14 February 2025 · n° 36

Stability of business births in January 2025 Enterprise births - January 2025

In January 2025, the total number of business births, all types of businesses combined and seasonally and working-day adjusted, remained stable after a 2.0% decrease in December. Conventional sole proprietorships rebounded a little (+0.4% after -7.6%), while registrations of individual businesses under the micro-entrepreneur status fell back slightly (-0.3% after +1.3%). On a raw data basis, the total number of businesses created over the past twelve months (from February 2024 to January 2025) increased by 4.0% compared to the same period a year earlier (from February 2023 to January 2024).

In January 2025, seasonally and working-day adjusted, business births fell back sharply in business support activities (-5.0% after +0.5%), and more moderately in households services (-3.0% after +2.3%) and in education, human health, and social work activities (-2.5% after +0.4%). They continued to decrease in financial and insurance activities, though less sharply than in the previous month (-1.4% after -18.2%). Conversely, they rebounded in information and communication (+7.3% after -0.1%), transportation and storage (+6.1% after -2.9%), and trade, including the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (+5.3% after -6.0%).

In raw data, the cumulative number of business births from November 2024 to January 2025 declined slightly by 0.7% compared to the same period a year earlier. Conventional sole proprietorships decreased substantially (-13.3%), while registrations of individual businesses under the micro-entrepreneur status rose slightly (+0.8%), as did company creations (+1.1%).

Over this period, the sector contributing the most to the decline was households services (−2,900 business births compared to the same months a year earlier, representing a contribution* of -1.0 point). Within this sector, business births declined particularly in “other personal services not elsewhere classified” (-2,600 compared to the same months a year earlier), which notably includes services related to human or animal well-being. Conversely, business births in the transportation and storage sector increased (+4,700 creations compared to the same months a year earlier).

In raw data, the total number of business births over the past twelve months (February 2024 to January 2025) increased by 4.0% year on year. Registrations of individual businesses under the micro-entrepreneur status rose sharply (+5.6%), as did company creations (+4.6%), while conventional sole proprietorships declined markedly (−6.6%).

For December 2024, the monthly change in total business births (all types of businesses combined) was revised downward by 0.4 points, due to the revision of raw data and the update of seasonal adjustment (SA) and working-day adjustment (WDA) coefficients. It now stands at -2.0% compared to -1.6% in the previous release.