In Portugal, 187,036 companies were born in 2021, which represents an increase of 21.2% compared to 2020. These figures, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), show an approximation to the levels of the constitution of companies in 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic, when the number of new companies was 196,193 — that is, just 4.7% more compared to 2021.

According to the report “Companies in Portugal — Demografia das Empresas”, and reported by ECO, the proportion of companies that were still active one year after starting stood at 75.7%, 1.1 percentage points (p.p.) higher than in 2020 and minus 0.4 p.p. compared to 2019, while those that survived three years after opening corresponded to 49.1% (4.9 p.p. more compared to 2020 and 2.9 p.p. more compared to 2019).

In all, there were 1,359,035 companies in 2021 — the year of the pandemic, in which the economy grew by 4.9% and various support measures for companies were in effect to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic and protect employment — of which 64 .9% were individual companies (881,644) and 35.1% were partnerships (477,391). Compared to 2019, the number of sole proprietorships decreased by around 0.7% and partnerships increased by 6.7%.