Statistics Norway has made a mistake in the Entrepreneur statistics. The statistics should show the number of enterprises and entrepreneurs who establish new enterprises, but in the statistics some entrepreneurs have been counted several times. SSB will publish updated tables on ssb.no as soon as possible.
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Statistics about
Entrepreneurs in business enterprise sector
The statistics provide an overview of those who establish limited liability companies and personally owned enterprises, and what characterizes the founders and owners of the enterprises that survive and grow.
Selected figures from this statistics
- Number of entrepreneurs in personally owned enterprises and private and public limited companiesDownload table as ...Number of entrepreneurs in personally owned enterprises and private and public limited companies
2023 2022 - 2023 2021 - 2023 Number of entrepreneurs Per cent Per cent change Personal owned companies Both sexes 40 486 100.0 1.3 -2.2 Males 25 194 62.2 0.7 -1.2 Females 15 292 37.8 2.3 -3.8 Private and public limited companies1 Both sexes 35 418 100.0 7.5 -14.5 Males 27 660 78.1 6.1 -15.4 Females 7 759 21.9 12.7 -11.4 1The number for the latest year is an estimate. Confidence intervals are available in StatBank table 08194. Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Entrepreneurs of newly established personally owned enterprises, by organizational structure, industry and genderDownload table as ...Entrepreneurs of newly established personally owned enterprises, by organizational structure, industry and gender1
2023 Entrepreneurs total Share of men Share of women Total 40 486 62.2 37.8 Organisational structure General Partnership 167 63.5 36.5 General Partnership with shared liability 953 71.4 28.6 Sole Proprietorship 39 366 62.0 38.0 Industrial activity Agriculture, forestry and fishing 0 . . Mining and quarrying 11 81.8 18.2 Manufacturing 1 253 66.9 33.1 Electrisity-, gas-, steam and air conditioning supply 4 100.0 0.0 Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities 21 81.0 19.0 Construction 3 659 96.1 3.9 Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vechicles and motorcycles 3 149 69.3 30.7 Transportation and storage 2 494 91.5 8.5 Accomodation and food serving activities 770 61.9 38.1 Information and communication 2 954 82.7 17.3 Financial and insurance activities 5 100.0 0.0 Real estate activities 496 71.2 28.8 Proffesional, scientific and technical activities 7 540 59.7 40.3 Administrative and support service activities 2 843 65.2 34.8 Education 3 288 46.5 53.5 Human health and social work activities 3 789 35.7 64.3 Arts, entertainment and recreation 5 228 55.3 44.7 Other service activites 2 751 28.0 72.0 Activities of household as employers; undifferentiated goods- and services producing activities of households for own account 1 100.0 0.0 Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies 0 . . Unknown 230 73.5 26.5 1Enterprises that only have enterprises as owners, or no registrated information about owners are not included in this statistics. Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Entrepreneurs of newly established personally owned enterprises, by age, education, national background and genderDownload table as ...Entrepreneurs of newly established personally owned enterprises, by age, education, national background and gender1
2023 Sole proprietorship Other personal owned enterprises2 Actors total Share of men Share of women Actors total Share of men Share of women Total 39 366 100.0 100.0 1 120 100.0 100.0 Age 16-24 years 6 966 19.7 14.4 284 30.7 12.9 25-44 years 21 144 50.8 58.5 505 41.2 54.2 45-66 years 9 578 24.2 24.5 277 23.7 27.2 67 years or older 1 678 5.3 2.6 54 4.5 5.7 Unknown age 0 0.0 0.0 0 0.0 0.0 Level of education Primary and lower secondary education (level 1-2) 6 589 20.1 11.3 173 18.3 8.7 Upper secondary education (level 3-5) 12 563 37.3 23.1 405 39.7 27.8 Tertial education, 4 years or less (level 6)3 10 346 21.3 34.3 382 30.3 43.1 Tertial education, more than 4 years (level 7-8)4 6 387 12.4 22.5 138 10.2 17.4 Other 3 481 8.9 8.7 22 1.5 3.0 National background Norway 27 074 68.9 68.6 974 88.2 84.1 Nordic countries except Norway, EU/EFTA, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand 4 282 10.2 12.0 49 3.4 6.6 Europe except EU/EFTA/UK, Africa, Asia, America except USA and Canada, Oceania except Australia and New Zealand, polar regions 6 594 17.1 16.1 87 7.6 8.1 Non-Norwegian citizen, living outside of Norway 1 416 3.8 3.2 10 0.8 1.2 1Enterprises with only enterprises as owners, and enterprises with no information about owners, are not indluded in this statistics. 2Other personal owned enterprises refers to the organisational structures general partnership and general partnership with shared liability and 3Tertiary education, short, comprises higher education 4 years or shorter 4Tertiary education, long, comprises higher education more that 4 years Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Entrepreneurs that are persons in newly established private and public limited companies, by industry and genderDownload table as ...Entrepreneurs that are persons in newly established private and public limited companies, by industry and gender
2022 2023 Number of entrepreneurs Share of men Share of women Number of entrepreneurs1 95% CI lower bound 95% CI upper bound Share of men Share of women Total 32 947 79.1 20.9 35 418 34 477 36 359 78.1 21.9 Industries Mining and quarrying 42 90.5 9.5 16 13 19 93.8 6.3 Manufacture 844 81.4 18.6 944 880 1 008 78.8 21.2 Electricity, gas and steam 99 93.9 6.1 100 83 117 89.9 10.1 Water supply, sewerage, waste 49 95.9 4.1 56 49 63 89.3 10.7 Construction 4 357 90.7 9.3 4 014 3 582 4 445 91.1 8.9 Wholesale and retail trade: repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles 3 425 75.2 24.8 3 925 3 699 4 151 76.0 24.0 Transportation and storage 686 88.9 11.1 793 750 835 87.6 12.4 Accommodation and food service activities 1 270 68.7 31.3 1 459 1 396 1 521 68.6 31.4 Information and communication 2 118 84.9 15.1 2 650 2 519 2 780 86.7 13.3 Financial and insurance activities 59 94.9 5.1 40 31 48 92.3 7.7 Real estate activities 4 520 83.1 16.9 3 529 3 068 3 990 83.8 16.2 Professional, scientific and technical activities 3 777 75.2 24.8 4 321 4 205 4 438 73.5 26.5 Administrative and support service activities 1 620 81.0 19.0 1 681 1 600 1 761 78.5 21.5 Education 530 61.5 38.5 663 635 691 58.3 41.7 Human health and social work activities 943 55.8 44.2 1 141 1 072 1 210 50.3 49.7 Arts, entertainment and recreation 726 73.4 26.6 767 718 815 72.8 27.2 Personal service activities 480 40.0 60.0 626 603 649 39.0 61.0 Households as employers activities 0 . . 0 0 0 . . Extraterritorial organisations and bodies 0 . . 0 . . . . Unspecified 7 402 79.0 21.0 7 566 7 170 7 963 78.1 21.9 Sum 32 947 34 291 1The number for the latest year is an estimate Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ... - Entrepreneurs that are persons in newly established private and public limited companies, by education, age and genderDownload table as ...Entrepreneurs that are persons in newly established private and public limited companies, by education, age and gender
2022 2023 Number of entrepreneurs Share of men Share of women Number of entrepreneurs1 95% CI lower bound 95% CI upper bound Share of men Share of women Total 32 947 79.1 20.9 35 418 34 477 36 359 78.1 21.9 Level of education Primary and lower secondary education (level 1-2) 3 955 83.7 16.3 4 189 4 068 4 309 83.4 16.6 Upper secondary education (level 3-5) 12 706 86.7 13.3 13 639 13 291 13 988 85.4 14.6 Tertial education, 4 years or less (level 6)2 8 961 70.8 29.2 9 721 9 477 9 966 70.0 30.0 Tertial education, more than 4 years (level 7-8)3 5 997 72.6 27.4 6 516 6 338 6 693 71.3 28.7 Other4 1 328 79.0 21.0 1 383 1 304 1 463 77.4 22.6 Sum 32 947 35 448 Age groups 16-24 years 1 515 84.6 15.4 2 066 1 939 2 192 85.6 14.4 25-44 years 17 675 77.7 22.3 18 909 18 373 19 446 77.1 22.9 45-66 years 12 559 79.7 20.3 13 166 12 848 13 484 77.6 22.4 67 years or older 1 191 87.3 12.7 1 269 1 233 1 305 86.9 13.1 Unknown age 7 42.9 57.1 19 19 20 42.1 57.9 Sum 32 947 35 429 1The number for the latest year is an estimate 2Tertiary education, short, comprises higher education more than 4 years 3Tertiary education, long, comprises higher education more than 4 years 4Other include persons with no completed education and those who haven't registrated any information about education Explanation of symbolsDownload table as ...
About the statistics
The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 11 March 2025.
Enterprise
In the business entrepreneur statistics, the legal unit is defined as the enterprise.
Legal form
Type of organisation registered in the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities (CCR). A distinction is made between sole proprietorships, public limited companies, general partnerships etc.
Personally owned enterprises
Personally owned enterprises refer to the legal forms sole proprietorships, general partnerships and general partnerships with shared liability.
General partnership and general partnership with shared liability
Must have at least two partners, and these partners are known as partners with joint liability and partners with unlimited liability, respectively. The partners are personally and economically responsible. In a general partnership, all partners can be claimed for the total debt of the company, but in a general partnership with shared liability every partner is personally liable for a certain part of the company's debt. In total, the partners are liable for the whole debt. Both physical persons and body cooperates can be partners. Having a board and/or manager is optional. In the tables, only enterprises with physical persons as partners are included, and only the active roles are included.
Sole proprietorship
A sole proprietorship must have one, and only one, owner. The owner is fully and personally responsible for the whole enterprise, and needs to be a physical person. It is possible to employ a manager who is someone other than the owner.
Public limited liability company and private limited liability company
These are organisational structures in which none of the owners have personal responsibility for the company's liability. The owners' responsibility for the company's debt is restricted to the share capital. A private limited liability company cannot, unlike a public limited liability company, receive share capital from the public.
All public limited liability companies and private limited liability companies must have a board of directors. This board must as a main rule consist of at least three members. In limited companies that have less than NOK 3 million in share capital, the board can consist of two members in addition to a deputy. All public limited liability companies and private limited liability companies with share capital of more than NOK 3 million must in addition have a manager.
New enterprise
In the business entrepreneur statistics, an enterprise is defined as new in the year it was registered, regardless of whether it had activity in the form of turnover or employed persons. Enterprises established in connection with a business takeover are excluded. Reactivations, i.e. enterprises that became active again after at least 2 years of continuous inactivity, are not considered new enterprises in the business entrepreneur statistics.
Survival
An enterprise is considered to have survived if it has activity in the form of turnover or employment, and has not had 2 or more consecutive years of inactivity since its establishment. Enterprises that are inactive for 1 year, then resume activity, are considered dormant in the inactive year, and as survivors again from the year the activity is resumed.
Survival by change of ownership: An enterprise is also considered to have survived if it has ceased to be active, but its activity has been taken over by another new legal unit created specifically to take over the production factors of the first enterprise. The new legal unit here represents the surviving enterprise, and takes over the establishing year from the old one. The age of the enterprise is calculated from that year, and the enterprise growth is calculated across the two legal units. Survival by change of ownership is relatively rare.
Entrepreneur
The entrepreneurs of a personally owned enterprise are the holder or participants at the time of establishment.
An entrepreneur of a limited liability company is defined as a person or an enterprise with an ownership interest (in share capital) above a certain limit in the newly established enterprise, or who at the time of establishment has an ownership interest and is the general manager, chairman of the board, deputy chairman or board member of the same enterprise. The person may be a shareholder directly in the enterprise or indirectly via another enterprise.
The requirement for indirect ownership is that the establishing enterprise is owned by only persons, in which case these persons are considered to be entrepreneurs. Otherwise, the establishing enterprise is considered to be the entrepreneur. If a person has both direct and indirect ownership in an enterprise, these ownership interests are combined. The ownership requirement is:
- 100 percent of a company with 1 shareholder
- at least 40 percent of a company with 2 shareholders
- at least 30 percent of a company with 3 shareholders
- at least 20 percent of a company with 4 or more shareholders
Personal entrepreneurs are also called founders.
Age
refers to the age of the founder at the end of the reference year.
Immigrants
People with an immigrant background include people born abroad or in Norway, with two foreign-born parents and four foreign-born grandparents.
National background
for immigrants is their own country of birth, defined (mainly) as their mother's place of residence at the time of their own birth. For Norwegian-born people with an immigrant background, it is the mother's country of birth. For people without an immigrant background, Norway is their national background.
Employees
The number of employees includes all persons who work for the enterprise for at least 1 hour per week, in an employment relationship or on a fee basis (freelancers, etc.). Persons with more than one employment relationship may be counted as employees in several enterprises. In the statistics, the number of employees is considered the average for the entire year, including in the year of establishment.
Employment (Persons employed)
The number of employees includes all employees plus any employed owners. Partnerships have 2 employed owners if the turnover is above a given limit (200,000 NOK in 2021, adjusted for inflation in other years), and sole proprietorships have 1 employed owner if the turnover is above a given limit (100,000 NOK in 2021, adjusted for inflation in other years). The number of employees is calculated as an average over the entire year, including in the year of establishment.
Turnover
Turnover is defined as the sum of remuneration of sale to customers, sale of commercial goods and gross income from other industry activities. The turnover includes rental income and commissions receivable, but not public assistance or gain by sale of fixed assets. VAT is not included in the figures. In some industries within finance and insurance, the concept of turnover is not clearly defined, and in these industries alternative measures are used as defined in EU Regulation 2019/2152.
Growth in employment
Employment growth is the development in the number of employed people measured against the previous year.
Municipality and county
The municipality and county where the founded enterprise's business address is located.
Standard for industrial classification (SN2007)
The industrial classification is based on the Norwegian Standard for industrial classification (SN2007), which in turn is based on the EU industrial classification standard NACE Rev.2.
Norwegian standard for classification of educations (NUS)
The education is classified according to the Norwegian standard for classification of educations (NUS) which was first established by Statistics Norway in 1970.
Standard for classification of persons with an immigration background
Immigration background is classified according to Statistics Norway's Standard for country codes (SSB-3).
Standard for classification of institutional sector
The population of established enterprises is defined using sectors defined in Statistics Norway's Standard for classification of institutional sector.
Number of entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur is usually a person, but can also be another enterprise. The entrepreneurs are counted once for each enterprise they founded in the relevant year.
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Relatert innhold
Analyses, articles and publications
Article / 16 December 2024Changes in the entrepreneur statisticsThe entrepreneur statistics have been revised since the previous publication, and this has led to some changes in the figures. These changes apply to the entire time series. The main changes are explained in this article.
Report / 19 November 2013Facts about entrepreneurship in NorwayThe report focuses on the identification of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial firms from registry data.