The Netherlands is now home to over 2.3 million businesses

The number of companies in the Netherlands grew further last year. According to the Chamber of Commerce (KvK), the number of companies went from almost 2.2 million at the beginning of last year to more than 2.3 million at the end of 2022.

That amounts to a growth of 5.7 percent, according to the KvK. The researchers state that the vast majority of this growth is made up of self-employed persons without employees. Seventy percent of all companies can now be classified as self-employed, the KvK said.

On January 1 of this year, 17 percent of the employed labor force were independent entrepreneurs without employees. A decade ago, it was still 10 percent, while the working population increased by 14 percent during that time. The number of self-employed persons without employees rose by 84 percent to more than 1.6 million during that period.

Most entrepreneurs can be found in Zuid-Holland. There were more than 443,000 entrepreneurs living in that province on January 1 of this year, the KvK said. Zuid-Holland also experienced the strongest growth in terms of entrepreneurs, with 6.2 percent, followed by Flevoland, which had a gain of 5.3 percent.

The provinces of Drenthe, Zeeland, and Groningen experienced the least growth. Each showed an increase below 3 percent.

When looking at the number of inhabitants, Noord-Holland leads in terms of the number of registered entrepreneurs. More than 419,000 entrepreneurs can be found there, or 142 entrepreneurs per 1,000 residents. Zuid-Holland has 117 entrepreneurs per 1,000 inhabitants, said the Chamber of Commerce.