Business demography statistics present data on:
- the active population of enterprises;
- their birth;
- survival (followed up to five years after birth), and;
- death.
Special attention is paid to the impact of these demographic events on employment levels.
Business demography data can be used to analyse the dynamics and innovation of different markets, for example:
- entrepreneurship in terms of the propensity to start a new business, or;
- the contribution of newly-born enterprises to the creation of jobs.
Enterprise birth rates, death rates and two-year survival rates form part of the structural indicators used to monitor the progress of the revised Lisbon agenda.
Data collection
- Business demography data has been collected on a voluntary basis since 2002.
- Currently 25 countries participate in the data collection exercise.
- After the recently adopted amendment of the SBS Regulation, the business demography data collection has become part of the regular annual collection of structural business statistics.
- Some 15 countries participated in the factors of business success development project, when enterprises that were born in 2002 and survived to 2005 were surveyed to obtain more information on the factors supporting or hampering the successful start-up of an enterprise.
Statistics Explained 
SBS recast Regulation 295/2008