The closing year saw more people than ever take the plunge into self-employment, with new firms spawning across almost all parts of the country.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
A total of 51,637 new companies were founded in Switzerland in 2023 – or an average of 141 every day, the Institut für Jungunternehmen (IFJ) said on Friday. The number of new firms thus rose by 3.2% compared to 2022 and by 2.2% compared to the previous record year of 2021.
According to the IFJ, “only” 45,409 new companies were founded each year on average over the last decade. Compared to this mean figure, company start-ups in 2023 grew by 13.7%.
IFJ experts suspect that the reason for the large number of new companies is “a yearning for professional freedom”. Many people now work part-time and can fulfil their dream of starting their own business alongside their permanent job. According to a press release, the institute sees the fact that so many companies are being founded in Switzerland as an important driver of the local economy.
More new companies were founded in almost all major Swiss regions in 2023. Most start-ups were created in northwestern Switzerland (+7%) and eastern Switzerland (+5.2%). Only the southern Ticino region saw a decrease (-1.2%).
Among the 26 cantons, Graubünden saw the largest increase (+13.8%) and canton Obwalden the largest decrease (-16.1%), according to the IFJ.
According to the press release, the most popular legal form for newly founded companies is still the limited liability company (GmbH) with 20,419 new entities this year (+2.7%). The increase in the number of new general partnerships, with 1,540 new companies (+17.3%), is surprising, writes the institute.
According to the IFJ, the proportion of public limited companies fell by 5.3%.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
Russian prosecutor seeks jail for French researcher tied to Swiss NGO
This content was published on
A Russian prosecutor asked a court to jail Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher working for a Swiss NGO, alleging he broke Russia’s “foreign agent” laws.
Greenwashing is on the decline but not in Switzerland
This content was published on
For the first time in six years, the number of greenwashing cases has fallen worldwide. But the challenges remain, as a new study shows.
This content was published on
The people's initiative for a future without animal experiments in Switzerland has passed the 100,000 mark in certified signatures.
This content was published on
Swiss flavour and fragrance firm Givaudan is strengthening its presence in Southeast Asia with the construction of a new plant in Indonesia.
Swiss siblings nominated for international film music award
This content was published on
With their double nomination at the World Soundtrack Awards, the Swiss-Australian Baldenweg sibling trio are making history for Switzerland.
Switzerland calls on Israel to halt attacks on Unifil in Lebanon
This content was published on
Switzerland has called on the Israeli army to immediately cease all attacks on the UN observer mission Unifil in Lebanon.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.