Business registrations and bankruptcies up in Q4 2025

In the last quarter of 2025, registrations of businesses in the EU increased by 0.5% compared with the third quarter of 2025.

At the same time, the number of bankruptcy declarations rose by 2.5% compared with the third quarter of 2025.

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.

Source dataset: sts_rb_q

Registrations up by 6.4% in information and communication sector

In the fourth quarter of 2025, business registrations rose in 5 out of 8 sectors of the business economy. Information and communication sector registered the largest increase, with registrations up by 6.4%. This was followed by industry (+4.9%) and accommodation and food services (+1.3%). In contrast, modest declines were recorded in trade (-0.3%), construction and transport (-0.1% each).

Bankruptcies rise by 8.6% in accommodation and food services

Bankruptcy declarations also showed mixed trends across sectors. The number of bankruptcies increased in 6 out of 8 sectors. The largest increases were recorded in accommodation and food services (+8.6%), information and communication sector (+7.9%) and transport (+5.6%). Decreases in bankruptcies were recorded in the sectors of trade (-3.4%) and finance (-0.7%).