The number of companies in Cyprus continued to increase for the fourth consecutive year in 2020, with the increase being limited to 2% due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In particular, according to the Business Register for 2020, published today by the Statistical Service, the number of companies last year amounted to 109.220, showing an increase of 2% on an annual basis, which is the lowest since 2016.
According to the data of the Statistical Service, the annual growth rate of companies in 2019 was 5,8%, in 2018 4,3%, in 2017 4,2% and in 2016 3,2%.
95% of companies with staff up to 9 people
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According to the data, 95,1% or 103.836 companies had between 0 and 9 employees. 4.2% of the total (4.550) were companies employing between 10 and 49 people, 0,6% (714) were companies employing between 50 and 249 people, while only 0,1% (120) were the share of companies employing more than 250 people.
The largest productive sector in number of companies is the sector of "Wholesale and Retail Trade, Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles" with 16.942 companies, followed by the sectors of "Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities" with 10.415 and "Construction" with 9.334 . The smallest productive sector is "Mines and Quarries" (Table 3).
It is noted that 24.897 companies are included in the Activities of Households as Employers, Non-Differentiated Household Activities, which concern the Production of Goods and Services for Own Use.