In 2023, 4,370 companies were born in the Grand Duchy and 3,805 closed. Nearly one in two new firms fails to reach its fifth year, and 84% start with no employee at all. This dashboard assembles the STATEC series published on data.public.lu (business demography, cohort survival, legal forms, labour cost, bankruptcies) to answer a single question: what do public data say about starting a business in Luxembourg?
Inflows exceed outflows almost every year: the stock of active companies (48,813 in 2023) is growing. The exit door remains wide: in 2023, 87 companies closed for every 100 created. Mind the recent levels: the European overhaul of the statistical business register (EBS regulation, applied from 2021) causes a series break, and comparisons with earlier years should be handled with caution.
Of 100 companies started in 2022, 89 were still alive a year later; of 100 started in 2018, 55 were still active five years later. The gap between sectors is wide: the highest five-year survival rate is that of Industry (70.0%), the lowest that of Transport & storage (48.5%).
Each row is a different cohort (started in 2018 to 2022), all observed in the same year; the business-cycle effect blends with the age effect.
9 in 10 new firms are in services. The two largest sectors, Education, health & other services and Professional & technical activities, account for 48.9% of the births of 2023. On the right, birth and death rates by sector, as a percentage of the stock of active enterprises, and their difference in points.
Caution on the extremes of 2023: the most negative balance (Finance & insurance, net -6.0 pt, death rate 12.7% against 3.8% a year earlier) may reflect the EBS series break: Eurostat flags a break for Luxembourg in 2022 and 2023 (bd_size, flag "b").
On the horizontal axis, the five-year survival of the 2018 cohort; on the vertical axis, the 2023 birth rate, as a percentage of the stock. Bubble size: the number of births in 2023. The dashed lines: the national average.
The Sàrl (including the Sàrl-S, minimum share capital of 1 euro according to guichet.lu) and the sole proprietorship account for most births.
of companies started in 2023 have no employee at the outset, and 98.7% have fewer than five. Going solo is the norm, not the exception.
Average headcount of companies started in 2018, at birth then five years later (+84.1% jobs of the cohort, STATEC DF_D1307).
13.2% of companies with at least 10 employees are "high-growth" (+10%/yr headcount over 3 years, STATEC DF_D1311).
The average employer cost (gross wage + employer social charges) reaches 71,769 € per full-time equivalent per year across all sectors (2020 survey), from 32,001 € (Hospitality (Horeca)) to 132,495 € (Finance & insurance). Legal floor: the minimum social wage, automatically indexed.
Four-yearly labour-cost survey (latest edition 2020, before the wage indexations that have taken place since).
Eurostat, lc_lci_lev (updated 2026-04-23): hourly labour cost, market economy (NACE B to S excluding O), euros per hour, annual estimate. Luxembourg: 50.9 € (2022) · 54.1 € (2023) · 54.9 € (2024) · 56.8 € (2025). A different concept from the four-yearly per-FTE survey alongside (hourly level, whole economy): the two cannot be converted into each other.
The minimum wage is the legal floor of any hire; it follows the sliding wage scale (automatic indexation of wages to inflation). Employer contributions according to guichet.lu (accessed 14.09.2026): pension 8.00%, health insurance 0.25% + 2.80% (rates as of 01/11/2015), accident 0.75%, occupational health 0.14%, plus the Mutualité des employeurs depending on the company's class (0.72% to 2.84%). They are included in the per-FTE cost shown alongside.
Court bankruptcies (a subset of closures) are the only series available up to 2025. 1,153 bankruptcies were declared in 2025, i.e. 44% more than the 2000-2019 average; the low point since 2016 dates from 2017 (887). 297 of the 1,153 bankruptcies of 2025 concern holding companies and investment funds, which are excluded from business demography; among the branches covered, Retail & auto repair (192), Construction (164), Hospitality (Horeca) (119) count the most (STATEC, Bankruptcies dashboard, situation as of 13 July 2026).By branch (DF_D1312, holdings and investment funds included in finance), Retail & auto repair (192), Construction (164), Hospitality (Horeca) (119) count the most.
Before 2016, counted at publication in the Mémorial; since then, at the LBR register: the before/after comparison is indicative. Holding companies and investment funds (NACE 64.2 and 64.3) are counted by the courts but are not part of the business demography population.
January to June 2026: 567 bankruptcies, against 577 over the same months of 2025, of which 150 holding companies and investment funds (STATEC, Bankruptcies dashboard, situation as of 13 July 2026).
Source: STATEC "Bankruptcies and Liquidations" dashboard (file D1309.xlsx, situation as of 13 July 2026, provisional figures revised at each publication); latest release: STATEC, 17.07.2026.
As of 24 September 2026: business creations changed by -7.9% in 2023 (STATEC DF_D1302, demography 2023); 1,153 bankruptcies were declared in 2025 (STATEC DF_D1312, situation as of 13 July 2026), the series record remaining that of 2019 (1,232).
| Sector | Active | Births | Share of births | Birth rate | Death rate | Net | 5-yr survival | Bankruptcies 2025 | % active 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education, health & other services | 7,667 | 1,081 | 24.7% | 14.1% | 8.3% | +5.8 | 55.8% | 46 | 0.5% |
| Professional & technical activities | 11,005 | 1,058 | 24.2% | 9.6% | 7.8% | +1.8 | 57.6% | 111 | 1.0% |
| Retail & auto repair | 7,876 | 559 | 12.8% | 7.1% | 7.9% | -0.8 | 51.8% | 192 | 2.5% |
| Information & communication | 3,369 | 367 | 8.4% | 10.9% | 8.1% | +2.8 | 51.4% | 39 | 1.2% |
| Construction | 4,967 | 306 | 7.0% | 6.2% | 6.6% | -0.4 | 55.7% | 164 | 3.5% |
| Real estate | 4,654 | 269 | 6.2% | 5.8% | 6.2% | -0.4 | 54.6% | 61 | 1.4% |
| Admin. & support services | 2,626 | 226 | 5.2% | 8.6% | 7.4% | +1.2 | 61.7% | 60 | 2.3% |
| Hospitality (Horeca) | 2,752 | 222 | 5.1% | 8.1% | 8.9% | -0.8 | 57.2% | 119 | 4.3% |
| Finance & insurance | 1,721 | 116 | 2.7% | 6.7% | 12.7% | -6.0 | 51.7% | 17 +297 | 1.0% |
| Transport & storage | 1,085 | 86 | 2.0% | 7.9% | 8.2% | -0.3 | 48.5% | 28 | 2.4% |
| Industry | 1,091 | 80 | 1.8% | 7.3% | 5.7% | +1.6 | 70.0% | 17 | 1.6% |
Market economy excluding agriculture, public administration and associations. Bankruptcies: the courts' NACE branches matched to the demography sections; the education-health-other services row takes the 85-96 branch of STATEC's Bankruptcies dashboard (D1309), identical to code S of DF_D1312; finance excludes holding companies and investment funds (64.2 and 64.3), outside the demography scope and counted separately. "% active" = ratio published by STATEC (bankruptcies of the year relative to the previous year's active enterprises); "·": not published. Creation/death rate = births/closures relative to the active stock; net = difference, in points.
Two STATEC analyses complement the series above: the Portrait chiffré des entreprises 2026 compares the five-year survival of two generations of enterprises ten years apart, which DF_D1306 (cohorts 2018 to 2022) cannot do; the GEM Luxembourg 2025/2026 report measures entrepreneurship in the adult population through a survey. Figures are quoted as published, without recomputation.
Construction: between 104 and 200 bankruptcies a year from 2010 to 2025, peak in 2024; property development accounts for 26% of the sector's bankruptcies in 2025. Age: companies older than five years are the most exposed class (113 bankruptcies in 2025); those aged 2 to 5 years account for one third in 2025. Source: Portrait chiffré des entreprises 2026 (PDF), p. 14 for survival and p. 15-16, 17 for bankruptcies; "≈" = value given as "about" in the text.
Survey of the adult population (GEM Adult Population Survey): these rates are not comparable with the register counts above, and established business owners are not a later stage of the TEA population. Rank among 19 European countries; the necessity-driven share is a percentage of TEA. Source: GEM Luxembourg 2025/2026, Table 1.1, PDF p. 18.
Birth rate 2023: 9.0% of the stock (STATEC DF_D1308). Five-year survival of the 2018 cohort: 55.3% (DF_D1306). Average headcount of the 2018 cohort: 1.0 employee at creation, 2.9 five years later (DF_D1307).
In 2023: 8,175 gross movements (births + deaths, STATEC DF_D1302 and DF_D1304) for a net balance of +565 companies.
Education, health & other services (+5.8), Information & communication (+2.8), Professional & technical activities (+1.8), Industry (+1.6), Admin. & support services (+1.2) (birth rate minus death rate, in points, STATEC DF_D1308). Sectors combining a negative balance and a five-year survival below the national average (55.3%): Transport & storage (48.5%), Finance & insurance (51.7%), Retail & auto repair (51.8%), Real estate (54.6%).
Stock 2023, STATEC DF_D1301. Skilled minimum social wage: ≈ 39,907 € gross per year (12 × 3,325.59 €, June 2026), excluding employer social charges; national average cost per FTE: 71,769 € (2020 survey, before indexations).