MY Tilastot has been updated with data for 2024. It provides key national and regional data on areas including business sectors, developments in turnover and employment, growth, business establishment and closures, exports, and business subsidies.
One of the most notable findings is the strong upward shift in business establishment activity in 2024. Across Finland, approximately 42,073 businesses started operating in 2022. This number fell to around 36,362 in 2023 before rising sharply to approximately 52,806 in 2024. These figures also include agriculture, forestry and fishing.
A new analysis introduced this year, “Business population renewal and changes in business size categories in 2022–2024,” uses a Sankey flow diagram to illustrate how businesses move between size categories. It clearly shows that changes in business size categories occur at a relatively moderate pace in Finland.
Between 2022 and 2024, the structure of the business population by company size remained relatively stable, while the rate of renewal increased. New businesses are, naturally, almost exclusively established as micro-enterprises, and the clear majority remain in the micro-enterprise category the following year.
Service exports play an increasingly important role in the exports of Finnish micro-enterprises. In Finnish micro-enterprises, the value of service exports exceeds goods exports, and there are significantly more enterprises exporting services than those exporting goods. The value of service exports by micro-enterprises has been growing strongly for several years, while the value of goods exports has been declining. The value of service exports by micro-enterprises to EU countries alone is higher than the total global value of goods exports by micro-enterprises. There is considerable variation in micro-enterprise exports between municipalities, with exports concentrated particularly in coastal areas and along Finland’s western border.
Micro-enterprises’ service exports are particularly concentrated in three major sectors: wholesale trade, the software industry, and the activities of head offices and management consultancy.
Wholesale trade is the largest sector for service exports by micro-enterprises, generating 128 million euros in service exports through 1,398 micro-enterprises. The value of EU service exports by micro-enterprises in the software sector has risen to nearly the same level, generated by 1,741 companies. The software sector has now recorded an upward trend for four consecutive years.
The third-largest sector in service exports is ’activities of head offices and management consultancy’, where 1,959 micro-enterprises generated 115 million euros in EU service exports.
Both the software sector and management consultancy have doubled their EU service exports since 2013. Among smaller sectors, for example, film, video and television production, sound recording and music publishing have quadrupled their EU service exports since 2013. In this sector, 574 micro-enterprises account for 22 million euros in exports.
Inflation-adjusted turnover among micro-enterprises declined for four consecutive years, but in 2024 the decreasing trend finally ended, with turnover returning to slight growth. At the same time, the share of the workforce employed by micro-enterprises continues to decline.
Construction is the largest main sector for micro-enterprises in terms of employment. Although full-time equivalent employment in construction has continued to decline slightly, it remains above the low point recorded in 2021.
Among solo entrepreneurs in particular, health and social services have become the largest sector in terms of full-time equivalent employment, following four consecutive years of growth.
Meanwhile, agriculture, forestry and fishing, which previously held the top position, has fallen to become the third-largest sector among solo entrepreneurs.
MY Tilastot was first published in 2021 as a part of the University of Oulu’s national task of micro-entrepreneurship research and education, which is coordinated by the Kerttu Saalasti Institute. The statistical review has been updated annually ever since.
Explore MY Tilastot (in Finnish) here.
Authors:
University of Oulu Kerttu Saalasti Institute
Pauliina Björk, M.Sc. (Tech.), M.A., Project Researcher, Regional Excellence
Ossi Kotavaara, Ph.D., Docent, Research Director, Regional Excellence
Martti Saarela, Ph.D., LL.M., M.Sc. (Econ.), Research Director, Micro-Entrepreneurship Centre MicroENTRE
Matti Muhos, D.Sc. (Tech.), Docent, Professor, Director of the Institute
Photo: Mikko Törmänen
In Kerttu Saalasti Institute's blog we write about the topics of the Institute's research groups, micro entrepreneurship education and the Institute's general topics. The authors are researchers, experts and members of networks.