In 2023, the number of active enterprises in Bulgaria was 404 257, which was 2.6% more compared to the previous year 2022.
During the period 2019–2023, active enterprises with zero employees represented the largest proportion of all active enterprises. In 2023, this share was 53.8% of all active enterprises, followed by the ‘1 - 4 employees’ group with 32.8%, and the lowest share of enterprises was in the ‘5 - 9 employees’ group - 6.4%.
The employed persons in the group ‘10 and more employed persons’ constituted 68.0% of the total number of employed persons in the period (2019 - 2023), while the share of enterprises in this group was only 7.1% of all active enterprises. At the same time, the largest number of active enterprises in the ‘0 employees’ group formed only 8.5% of the total number of employed people in the country.
Newborn enterprises
The newly born enterprises for 2023 in the selected economic sectors were 43 353, or 10.7% of the total number of enterprises. For the last five years, the annual average percentage of newborn enterprises was 10.2% of the active enterprises during this period.
The structure of newborn enterprises by economic sector remained relatively stable over the past five years, and this tendency remained intact in 2023 as well (Figure 3). With the highest relative share were the newly born enterprises in sector G – ‘Trade; repair of cars and motorcycles’ - 32.6%, and with the lowest - the newly born enterprises in sector B – ‘Extractive industry’ - below 0.1%.
During the observed period (2019 - 2023), the largest number of newborn enterprises had no employees. In 2023, 35 953 newly born enterprises fell into the '0 employees' group, followed by the '1–4 employees' group with 6 614 enterprises. The group with 10 or more employees included just 290 enterprises.
Survived Enterprises
A total of 32 154 enterprises successfully survived in 2023, representing 81.5% of all newly born enterprises in 2022. The highest relative share—90.3%—was observed in the group with ‘1- 4 employees’.
Since 2018, the year-on-year survival rate had shown a gradual fall in the number of survived enterprises for all of the four groups according to the number of employees. The share of enterprises born in 2018 and still active five years later was 4.8%, while the share of those born in 2022 and active in 2023 was 8.0% of the total number of active enterprises in 2023.
The most viable are the enterprises in sections P - ‘Education’ and R – ‘Arts, entertainment and recreation’, where the share of enterprises that successfully survived the five-year period was 6.3%. On the opposite side were the enterprises in section D - ‘Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply’ - 0.6%.
The total number of persons employed in enterprises born in 2022 and survived in 2023 is 73 580. Almost 58.2% of the persons employed are concentrated in the following four sections: G – “Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” – 27.9%, F – “Construction” - 10.4, I – “Accommodation and food service activities” – 10.0%, and C – “Manufacturing” – 9.9%.
The distribution of employment at enterprises born in 2022 and surviving in 2023, by groups of employed persons, was as follows:
- 0 employees - 44%;
- 1 - 4 employees - 6%;
- 5 - 9 employees - 3%;
- 10 and more employees - 7%.
Dead Enterprises
In 2022, 32 898 enterprises died5, or 8.3% of the active businesses that year, resulting in 2.4% of those employed during the year losing their jobs. The largest share of dead businesses - 38.2%, was in section G - ‘Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles’.
The most viable were the enterprises in sections: B - ‘Mining and quarrying’, where dead enterprises were less than 0.1%
