Huge jump in very small business ventures as number of Dutch SME’s rise 44%

The number of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Netherlands increased by some 44 percent over the past decade. The increase was almost entirely carried by micro businesses, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday.

At the start of the third quarter of 2019 the Netherlands counted 1.16 million SMEs, compared to 805 thousand in 2009. The vast majority of these businesses are so-called micro companies - companies with between 1 and 10 employees. Of the nearly 335 thousand SMEs that opened in the past decade, over 330 thousand are micro companies. There are now over 1.1 million micro companies in the Netherlands. The number of small businesses, with between 10 and 250 employees, remained relatively stable at 52 thousand.

The information and communication sector saw the biggest increase in SMEs over the past decade with 67 percent. The number of film producers and vloggers nearly doubled. The number of IT providers also increased considerably. In the trade sector, tens of thousands of web stores opened. In industry, the number of beer breweries increased tenfold. And in transport many new parcel deliverers opened.

Older companies tend to have more employees, according to the stats office. Of the medium-sized companies, with 50 to 250 employees, nearly 80 percent are older than 10 years. Among the companies that consist of only the entrepreneur, 34 percent have been active for 10 years or more.