Nearly a million companies created in 2021, a new record in France

Unheard of in France. Total business creations in 2021 amounted to 995,868, up 17.4% compared to 2020, setting a new historic record, INSEE reported on Friday January 14. The number of micro-enterprises, created by auto-entrepreneurs, increased by 17%, and that of companies by 24.3%, while the number of traditional sole proprietorships increased by only 1.7%, said the National Institute of Statistics.

The sharp rise in business start-ups last year can be explained by “the particularly low level of creations during the first confinement in 2020”, according to an INSEE press release, but that did not prevent 2020 from already being a record year. In 2021, the business creations that have increased the most are those of household services, up 30%, financial activities and insurance (+30.6%), information and communication (+25.4% ) and transportation and warehousing (+24.9%). This last category notably includes home deliveries, which have exploded with the health crisis.

In December 2021, business creations increased by 0.8%, after falling by 3.6% in November. Last month, the registrations of micro-entrepreneurs, which represent 64.4% of the total, increased by 2.7%, while those of traditional sole proprietorships fell by 2.4%. Creations increased sharply in the last month of 2021 in business support (+5.3%) and in construction (+5.6%), further details INSEE.