According to figures released by the Ministry of Data and Statistics on Thursday, the number of new startups fell 1.5 percent to 908,000 last year, although the number of active businesses with recorded sales or regular employees rose by 106,000 or 1.4 percent from a year earlier to 7.75 million.
The number of startups peaked at 1.07 million in 2020 before falling steadily to 1.03 million in 2021, 997,000 in 2022, 956,000 in 2023 and 922,000 in 2024.
The downward trend was particularly pronounced in the lodging and restaurant sector, where the number of startups fell 11 percent to 128,000, and in real estate, which saw an 8.6 percent decline to 155,000. In contrast, the number of new businesses in the retail and wholesale sector rose 6.2 percent to 244,000.
Amid the prolonged economic downturn, one-person businesses grew by 114,000 to 6.22 million in 2025, while businesses with two or more employees fell by 7,000 to 1.53 million.
The number of startups run by owners under 30 fell 6.7 percent to 209,000, while those led by those aged 70 and older rose 12.7 percent to 810,000.
Business growth also weakened overall, as the number of fast-growing firms with at least 10 regular employees and average annual growth of 20 percent or more in both sales and employment over the past three years fell by 855 from a year earlier to 4,534.
The number of business closures fell by 21,000 to 769,000 in 2024, with the closure rate dropping 0.4 percentage points to 10.1 percent. The one-year survival rate for startups slipped to 63.9 percent, while the five-year survival rate edged up to 36.5 percent.
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