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In 2024
Region recorded 5 480 enterprises births and 3 946 deaths
The Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) releases today the final data on business demography for enterprises headquartered in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (ARM), covering the period 2019–2024, by sector of the Classification of Economic Activities (NACE Rev. 2) and legal form. This information is sourced from the Integrated Business Accounts System (IBAS) of Statistics Portugal (INE).
In 2024, there were 5 480 enterprises in the ARM (+1.7% compared with 2023), of which 23 were financial enterprises and 5 457 non-financial enterprises. Of this total, around three out of every four were individual enterprises and one out of every four was a company.
The number of individual enterprise births increased by 0.9% compared with 2023, while company births rose by 4.4% over the same period.
The proportion of enterprises surviving one year after birth stood at 78.3%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points (pp) compared with 2023 and was higher among companies (89.6%) than among individual enterprises (74.9%).
It is also estimated that the number of enterprise deaths reached 3 946, representing an increase of 5.9% compared with the previous year, a larger change than that observed for enterprise births.
78.3% of non-financial enterprises born in 2023 remained active in 2024
In 2024, there were 5 457 non-financial enterprises births in the ARM, 87 more (+1.6%) than in the previous year.
Enterprises that started activity in 2024 created 6 175 jobs and generated 100.0 million euros in turnover (-0.5% and -29.4% compared with 2023, respectively).
In enterprises, the employment creation rate, defined as the ratio between employment in enterprise births and total employment, stood at 5.9% in 2024, 0.4 pp lower than in the previous year.
The birth rate of non-financial enterprises headquartered in the ARM was 15.3%, below the 2023 figure (15.9%).
Regarding enterprise survival, it should be noted that 78.3% of enterprises born in 2023 remained active in 2024. For those born in 2022, this ratio was 60.9%.
In 2024, 3 932 non-financial enterprises deaths (+5.9% compared with 2023) were estimated, leading to the loss of 4 300 jobs (-2.9%) and a decline of 69.3 million euros in turnover (+3.2%).
In that year, the job loss rate, defined as the ratio between employment in enterprise deaths and total employment, stood at 4.1%, 0.4 pp lower than in the previous year.
In 2024, the death rate stood at 11.0%, unchanged from the previous year. The death rate for individual enterprises (14.9%) was also considerably higher than that of companies (3.9%).
High-growth companies increased in 2024
In 2024, there were 234 high-growth companies (+19.4% compared with 2023), accounting for 17.1% of the total number of non-financial companies with 10 or more employees in the ARM. These companies were responsible for 33.2% of employment, 26.3% of turnover and 25.8% of the gross value added (GVA) generated by this group of enterprises.
These companies employed 18 559 persons (+33.2% compared with 2023), while their turnover reached 1 594.0 million euros (+23.7%), generating a GVA of approximately 579.8 million euros (+25.5%).
The number of young high-growth non-financial companies, known as “gazelles”, decreased from 17 in 2023 to 12 in 2024. Employment fell from 486 persons to a total of 354 persons in 2024. Turnover declined by 56.2%, amounting to 22.9 million euros. In 2024, the 12 “gazelle” enterprises in the ARM generated a GVA of 9.3 million euros, 62.4% lower than in 2023.

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