Thirty-six percent of startups went out of business after less than a year. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 21 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of newly established companies in South Korea fell for the second consecutive year in 2022 amid an economic slowdown, data showed Thursday.
Some 997,000 businesses were newly established last year, down 3.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.
In 2021, the figure decreased 3.4 percent, or 35,000 firms, on-year to come to 1.02 million amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
By industry, the number of newcomers in the real estate sector fell by the most of 32,000 entities, followed by the manufacturing sector with 8,000 fewer new companies and the construction firm with 5,000 fewer new firms.
The proportion of newly established companies out of all business entities came to 13.6 percent in 2022, the lowest level since 2011, when the government began compiling relevant data.
Only 64.1 percent of companies created in 2020 made it through the following year, down 0.6 percentage point from the previous year, and it was the first time since 2018 that the figure marked an on-year decline.
Some 735,000 firms permanently closed in 2021, and the number of active companies grew 3.4 percent on-year to 7.35 million last year, the data showed.
(Yonhap)
