- In 2022, registered business units increased by 1.2% when compared to 2021.
- In 2022, small registered units (employing between 10 and 49 employees) amounted to 2,932, an increase of 6.9% over 2021.
- In 2022, businesses in the Wholesale and retail trade (G); Professional, scientific and technical (M) and Financial and insurance (K) activities covered 39.7% of total registered units.
- In 2022, 56.3% of registered business units were sole owners (or partnerships) while 39.8% were limited liability companies (or Plc).
Registered units in Wholesale and retail trade (Section G) accounted for 13.8 per cent of the total registered units in 2022; Professional, scientific and technical activities (Section M) accounted for 13.3 per cent; Financial and insurance activities (Section K) accounted for 12.6 per cent; and Administrative and support service activities (Section N) accounted for 7.9 per cent (Table 1).
Most of the business units (97.3 per cent) employed between 0 to 9 persons (micro). The population of small (10 – 49) and medium (50 – 249) businesses accounted for 2,932 (2.2 per cent) and 606 (0.4 per cent) units respectively. The large businesses employing 250 and more amounted to 149 (0.1 per cent). The number of registered units that employ between 0 and 9 persons, increased by 1,327 units, an increase of 1.0 per cent, when compared with 2021. The registered units that employ between 10 and 49 persons, increased by 188 units, an increase of 6.9 per cent, when compared with 2021. (Chart 1, Table 1).
Chart 1. Registered units in 2022, by employment size
In 2022, 56.3 per cent of the registered units were sole owners or partnerships, 39.8 per cent were limited liability or public limited companies (Plc), while 3.9 per cent were governmental, non-profit or other types of legal organisations (Chart 2, Table 2).
New registrations in 2022 amounted to 10,293 units, whilst deregistrations amounted to 6,595 units. (Chart 3, Table 3, Methodological Note 8).
Chart 2. Registered business units by type of legal organisation
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Chart 3. Newly registered and deregistered business units
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Methodological Notes
1. The statistical business register is the source of the data in this news release. The statistical business register provides one of the most detailed local business profiles in Malta.
2. Business registrations are based on administrative data. Registrations and/or deregistrations do not precisely record commencement or cessation of an activity by a unit. Demographic events such as takeovers, mergers, split-offs are not catered for and may affect the data presented.
3. The data is classified by economic activity according to the NACE (Nomenclature Statistique des Activités Économiques dans la Communauté Européenne) classification of economic activities in the European Union.
4. Other types of legal structures may include public corporations, cooperatives and joint ventures.
5. Micro enterprises include non-trading units.
6. Updates in the statistical business register are ongoing and all figures reported are subject to revision.
7. The registered business units represents units that were registered for at least one day during the reporting period. Business units that have ceased operating as indicated in Table 3, are included in the registered business units in Tables 1 and 2 if they were registered for at least one day in the year that the deregistation took place.
8. The significant increase in the number of deregistrations in 2020 when compared to 2019 may be partly attributed to the defunct companies that had been struck off the Malta Business Registry during the reporting period.
9. More information relating to this news release may be accessed at:
Statistical Concepts
Classifications
10. References to this news release are to be cited appropriately.
11. A detailed news release calendar is available online.
Definitions
The following are the definitions of the employment size class breakdowns shown in Table 1.
| Size class | Persons employed | |
|---|---|---|
| Micro | 0-9 | |
| Small | 10-49 | |
| Medium | 50-249 | |
| Large | 250+ |
The following are the definitions of the legal forms:
Sole ownership is defined as enterprises owned exclusively by one natural person.
Partnership is defined as an association of persons who conduct a business under a collective name.
Limited liability companies refer to enterprises comprising joint-stock companies, private limited companies.
Government units are legal entities established by political processes that have legislative, judicial or executive authority over institutional units within a given area. These include government ministries and departments.
Non-profit organisations are legal or social entities acting for the purpose of producing goods and services whose status does not permit them to be a source of income, profit or other financial gains for the units that establish, control or finance them.
Public corporations are all the government-controlled units that are often established by government as market producers principally engaged in the production of goods, non-financial and financial services, and as such they are classified in non-financial and financial sectors.
Cooperatives are bodies set down by law that observe a number of general principles; for example profits are often distributed in proportion to members’ dealings with the society.
