Some 1,111,200 new businesses were established in France during 2024, a 6% increase on the previous year, new data from Insee, the French statistics office, has found.
The increase in new businesses follows on from a ‘period of stabilisation’ between 2021 and 2023, with new business numbers falling by 1% between 2022 and 2023.
The registration of ‘micro-entrepreneur‘ businesses increased by 7%, while the number of new companies established rose by 5%, the data showed. The number of conventional sole proprietorships continued to decline, however, dropping by 3% year-on-year.
New businesses by sector
The transportation and storage sector saw the highest number of new business establishments, with a 25% increase year-on-year, while trade was up by 6%, and administrative and support service activities rose by 16%.
However, new business establishments in the specialised, scientific, and technical sector experienced a decline (-6%), as did real estate activities (-5%).
Businesses in rural areas
Business establishments in the manufacturing sector were more frequently located in rural areas compared to other sectors, according to Insee.
In 2024, more than two fifths (41%) of manufacturing business establishments were established in rural areas, compared to 24% of total new businesses. Read more here.
Elsewhere, separate Insee data showed that between the end of September and the end of December 2024, private payroll employment in France declined by 0.2%, representing a loss of 50,100 jobs.
This followed a period of near-stability in the previous quarter, where employment had increased slightly by 0.1% (+27,000 jobs). Compared to the same period in 2023, private payroll employment remained almost unchanged (-1,000 jobs), however it remained significantly above pre-pandemic levels, exceeding the end of Q4 2019 figures by 5.6% (+1.1 million jobs). Read more here.
