In Croatia, 54.1 Percent of Registered Business Entities Are Active

At the end of March this year, there were 328,128 registered business entities in Croatia, of which 54.1 percent or 177,582 were active, according to data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics.

Of the total number of registered business entities, the majority are companies, 249,654. Of these, 57 percent or 142,404 are active.

There were 74,904 institutions, bodies, associations, and organizations, of which 34,485 or 46 percent were active, while there were 3,570 cooperatives, with 693 active.

At the end of March, there were also 92,133 entities operating in crafts and freelance professions, according to DZS data.

Data on the structure of business entities by activity show that more than half of the registered and active entities are represented in four areas of activity – wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, with a share of registered entities at 17.4 percent and active at 15.3 percent, manufacturing industry, with a share of registered at 7.8 percent and active at 8.9 percent, professional, scientific, and technical activities, with a share of registered at 10.3 percent and active at 12.8 percent, and other service activities, with a share of registered at 15.8 percent and active at 13 percent.

Most Active in Private Ownership

The structure of active legal entities by forms of ownership shows that private ownership is the most common form – it encompasses 79.5 percent of entities, or 141,196.

State ownership accounts for 0.8 percent of entities, mixed ownership for 0.4 percent of entities, cooperative ownership for 0.4 percent of entities, while ownership is not tracked for 18.9 percent of legal entities.

Among active legal entities, the majority are companies, 91,841 or 51.7 percent, which have between one and nine employees, while 67,442 entities or 38 percent have no employees. Furthermore, 14,107 legal entities have between 10 and 49 employees, 3,593 have between 50 and 249 employees, 325 entities have between 250 and 499 employees, and 274 have 500 or more employees.

In the structure of companies by legal forms, the form of limited liability companies predominates, with a share of registered at 71.3 percent and active at 73.3 percent.

The simple limited liability company is the second most common form with 27.5 percent registered and 25.6 percent active, according to DZS data.

Data on the territorial distribution of business entities at the county level show that just under one-third of all registered business entities (legal entities) are located in the City of Zagreb.