In the second quarter of 2026, registrations of businesses in the EU decreased by 0.5% compared with the first quarter of 2026, while bankruptcies increased by 5.7%.
This information comes from data on business registrations and bankruptcies published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on quarterly registrations of new businesses and declarations of bankruptcies.
Registrations down by 3.6% in industry
In the second quarter of 2026, business registrations decreased in 5 out of 8 sectors of the business economy. Industry registered the largest drop (-3.6%), followed by accommodation and food services (-3.4%) and education and social services (-3.2%). The number of business registrations increased sharply in the information and communication sector (+8.8%) and an increase was also recorded in construction sector (+1.0%), while financial services remained stable (+0.0%). (....)