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Coverage and Sources of Data

Data on business entities are primarily sourced from the registration records of the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).

Data

Please click on the topic to view the available data tables.

Formation of Business Entities

Title : Formation Of All Business Entities By Industry, Annual

Number

Data Items

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024

Total

62,113
61,804
61,573
63,480
65,438
64,305
70,401
71,639

Manufacturing

2,011
1,919
2,102
2,471
2,663
2,437
2,683
2,530

Construction

2,850
2,716
2,716
2,402
3,019
3,261
3,431
3,411

Wholesale Trade

9,786
10,166
10,420
11,001
8,337
9,322
11,212
11,929

Retail Trade

5,418
5,216
5,798
8,943
8,271
5,183
5,996
6,322

Transportation & Storage

7,739
3,014
2,970
2,924
2,868
2,588
2,692
2,729

Accommodation

95
103
101
63
64
74
98
103

Food & Beverage Services

3,298
3,341
2,985
3,285
3,934
3,335
3,616
3,793

Information & Communications

5,480
8,195
6,834
6,660
7,869
9,056
9,403
9,631

Finance & Insurance

5,015
5,866
6,467
6,002
8,349
8,309
7,499
6,988

Real Estate

747
692
691
631
700
742
884
928

Professional Services

9,730
10,733
10,584
9,984
9,980
10,470
12,048
12,127

Administrative & Support Services

2,773
2,733
2,735
2,226
1,991
2,322
2,807
2,933

Education, Health & Social Services

3,504
3,400
3,213
3,130
3,271
2,873
3,572
3,572

Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services

3,324
3,353
3,549
3,362
3,742
4,006
4,118
4,299

Others

343
357
408
396
380
327
342
344
SOURCE : ACCOUNTING AND CORPORATE REGULATORY AUTHORITY
Footnotes

Business entities refer to companies, sole-proprietorships & partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, public accounting firms and variable capital companies. The decrease in the business formation and cessation counts in December 2024 was due to a temporary suspension of (a) all eServices on Bizfile portal including those relating to business registration and cessation to facilitate IT system migration activities carried out in first week of December; and (b) ACRA's periodic exercise to remove from the public register business entities that failed to renew their registrations and companies that were dormant.

Formation Of All Business Entities By Industry, Annual
Formation Of All Business Entities By Type, Annual

Download all in Excel  (19 KB)

Cessation of Business Entities

Title : Cessation Of All Business Entities By Industry, Annual

Number

Data Items

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024

Total

48,204
44,814
47,320
42,474
48,715
49,469
51,630
55,491

Manufacturing

1,751
1,706
1,764
1,631
1,970
2,118
2,268
2,321

Construction

2,278
2,192
2,331
1,921
2,178
2,311
2,389
2,899

Wholesale Trade

8,007
7,811
8,204
7,294
8,835
8,912
9,099
9,244

Retail Trade

5,141
4,489
5,110
4,496
5,291
5,796
5,769
6,147

Transportation & Storage

7,087
5,949
4,491
3,383
3,110
3,031
2,880
2,815

Accommodation

66
67
77
78
90
80
99
67

Food & Beverage Services

2,115
2,132
2,358
2,034
2,457
2,747
2,756
3,047

Information & Communications

3,569
3,466
4,174
4,713
5,377
5,222
6,044
6,856

Finance & Insurance

3,040
3,125
3,247
2,928
3,603
3,384
3,850
4,485

Real Estate

651
649
585
584
590
553
641
669

Professional Services

6,840
6,371
7,036
6,509
7,342
7,460
7,827
8,331

Administrative & Support Services

2,248
2,092
2,314
1,988
2,325
2,278
2,212
2,387

Education, Health & Social Services

2,333
2,042
2,495
2,252
2,489
2,442
2,516
2,665

Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services

2,813
2,470
2,875
2,410
2,749
2,832
2,937
3,236

Others

265
253
259
253
309
303
343
322
SOURCE : ACCOUNTING AND CORPORATE REGULATORY AUTHORITY
Footnotes

Business entities refer to companies, sole-proprietorships & partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, public accounting firms and variable capital companies. The decrease in the business formation and cessation counts in December 2024 was due to a temporary suspension of (a) all eServices on Bizfile portal including those relating to business registration and cessation to facilitate IT system migration activities carried out in first week of December; and (b) ACRA's periodic exercise to remove from the public register business entities that failed to renew their registrations and companies that were dormant. The statistics on business entities cessation till 2017 have been adjusted to provide a more accurate reflection of the underlying cessation trends. In 2016 and 2017, ACRA conducted periodic reviews and removed from its public register, sole proprietorships and partnerships that failed to renew their registrations, and companies that were dormant. These periodic removal of business entities took place at ad hoc intervals and impacted published statistics on business entities cessation. The number of business entities cessation have therefore been adjusted to reflect the removal of such business entities at the date when they would have normally been removed. Going forward, such review and removal exercises will be conducted on a regular basis to provide a more accurate reflection of cessation trends.

Cessation Of All Business Entities By Industry, Annual
Cessation Of All Business Entities By Type, Annual

Download all in Excel  (19 KB)

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