
There were 1.094.607 VAT-registered enterprises in Belgium on 31 December 2021. This represents an annual growth of 4.2%. This growth is slightly higher than in previous years, when it amounted to 3.9% on average per year between 2016 and 2020.
The number of enterprise births amounted to 114,559 units, or 9.7% more than in 2020, while 70,720 enterprises ceased their activities, or 9.9% more than in 2020.
Which sectors?
Since 2017, the sector Professional, scientific and technical activities (Nace M) has been the sector with the highest number of enterprises in Belgium. There were 215,738 of them on 31/12/2021, or 5.3% more than a year earlier. This sector also saw the most births in 2021: 21,889 enterprise births and 12,083 de-registrations.
With 189,668 VAT-registered enterprises, Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (Nace G) is the second largest sector. There were 19,419 births and 15,310 de-registrations in this sector in 2021. The growth in this sector amounts to 2.1% in 2021.
The third sector, Construction (Nace F), accounts for 151,380 enterprises. There were 17,897 births as against 10,502 de-registrations in this sector. This results in an annual growth of 5.6%.