In Spain, 3.3 million companies have been created in three decades, according to Informa D&B

In the last 30 years, 3.3 million companies have been established in Spain, although most have already ceased operations, according to data released this Wednesday by Informa D&B. The study details that in 2025, 128,000 new companies were registered, the highest number since 2007.

The report emphasizes that Madrid and Barcelona concentrate four out of every ten companies created during this period. Additionally, it identifies 2006 as the year with the most establishments and 2011 as the year with the highest volume of capital invested.

Taking as a reference the companies born in 1995, 2005, and 2015, the firm confirms that most have ceased their activity. Specifically, 82% of the companies launched in 1995 are no longer active.

Thus, of those established in 1995, 18.12% are still operational; among those that started their journey in 2005, 18.75% remain operational, and of those created in 2015, 36.62% are still active, according to the study “The creation of companies in the last 30 years,” prepared by Informa D&B.

Regarding the companies that have ceased operations, 86% of those created in 1995 did so through official processes. This proportion drops to 80.5% for those that emerged in 2005 and to 66.6% in the case of those from 2015, which, according to the Cesce subsidiary, would indicate that “there are quite a few companies that cease their activity without properly communicating it.”

In any of these three years, the report adds, strictly insolvency procedures (suspension of payments, bankruptcies, and contests) do not reach 0.36% of the total business closures, reflecting the “limited use” of this type of mechanism compared to other closure avenues.

MORE THAN HALF ARE CONCENTRATED IN MADRID, CATALONIA, AND ANDALUSIA

The analysis by autonomous communities shows that Madrid accounts for 20.5% of the establishments in the last 30 years, followed by Catalonia, with 19%, and Andalusia, with 16%. Together, these three regions account for more than half of the new companies and are the only ones that exceed 500,000 companies created during the period.

On the opposite end are Ceuta, Melilla, La Rioja, and Cantabria, all with a weight of less than 1%. Navarra concentrates just over 1% of the established companies, while Extremadura reaches 1.3% and Asturias, 1.4%.

EVOLUTION AND LARGEST CREATIONS

If specific years are observed, 2006 stands out as the year with the most companies created, with 150,108, while 2011 records the highest capital investment, with 21,454 million euros. The latter is considered an “atypical” year due to the constitution of the State Lottery and Betting Company. The investment made in 2025, clearly below that figure and slightly lower than the previous year, stands at 5,871 million euros.

D&B reports that the trajectory of the number of incorporations since 1995 is closely linked to the economic context of each phase: the expansion phase between 1995 and 2007, the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, the post-crisis period from 2010 to 2019, the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, and the subsequent recovery between 2021 and 2025. The capital contributed to start these companies since 1995 is around 250,000 million euros, according to their estimates.

“If the number of incorporations behaves according to the economic cycle, the investment is more fluctuating, depending on the activity of a few companies, for example, in the case of corporate restructurings. Nevertheless, 2008 and 2009 are the years in which investment decreases the most, just as happens with creations, and the levels of capital disbursed have not returned to what they were before the crisis, going from 14,669 million in 2007 to 5,871 in 2025, a 60% decrease,” analyzes the firm regarding the studied period.

Among the largest operations by capital invested between 1995 and 2025, the State Lottery and Betting Company stands out, with more than 12,520 million euros in 2011; Ibercaja, with 2,134.4 million in 2011; Teneguia Financial Management, with 1,567 million in 2002 (now extinct); Olive Partners, with 1,490 million in 2015, and CSN Steel, with more than 1,204 million in 2015, among others.

Source: democrata.es