Entrepreneurs drive huge increase in business creation

Roughly 65 thousand new companies were created over the course of 2014, with an additional 12 thousand formed in the first quarter of 2015. The increase is mainly caused by a growing number of sole proprietorships, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported Wednesday. There are currently a 1.5 million companies operating in the Netherlands, the largest number in the country's history. The number of sole proprietorships rose by 30 percent up to the level of 1.1 million since 2010, though businesses employing 2 to 10 people remained virtually constant. There was a slight decline in the number of enterprises employing 10 to 50 people. Meanwhile, the number of medium-size and large companies both dropped by about five percent. This constitutes a fall by about 750 enterprises from the level of 14,000.