CRIF AG has looked at how many new businesses were established after the Lockdown and compared this number with the same period of the previous year. The period under observation lasted for one month. All in all, 2,143 companies were set up in Switzerland during this time. This is 38% fewer than last year. The number of company start-ups has fallen in every canton. The worst affected are the Cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden (-74%), Ticino (-63%), Glarus (-56%), Freiburg (-53%) and Geneva (-52%).
The numbers have also fallen in cantons that have a relatively high number of companies and company start-ups: Bern (-44%), Vaud (-40%), Zurich (-32%) and Zug (-31%). The Canton of Schwyz reported the smallest reduction, at 16%.
In absolute numbers, the Canton of Zurich reported the highest number of start-ups (424), followed by Vaud (199) and Bern (159).
A look at the individual sectors reveals that the arts and entertainment sector registered the largest reduction, with 51% fewer company start-ups. Sectors that provide economic services and freelance services are also badly affected (-50% and-46% respectively). Hospitality has also suffered a drop of 42%.
The finance and insurance sector reported the lowest fall, at minus 9%, followed by the healthcare industry (-30%) and the real estate sector (-34%).
About the survey process
In this survey, we took account of all those businesses that were entered into the Commercial Register for the first time from 18th March to 14th April 2020 (one month). These numbers were compared with the period from 18th March to 14th April 2019.
The full analysis can be requested from presse.ch@crif.com.
