There was sharp lift in the number of businesses operating in New Zealand over the past year – up 4.8%.
The result was driven by a combination of more people ‘giving it a go’, and fewer businesses closing. Most impressive for me was that the number of new businesses started by entrepreneurs was the equivalent to 13% of the business stock, which was its highest rate in 5 years! Reassuringly, business closures were down on their 2021 level, and at 9% of the business stock, closures were also lower than they had been before Covid-19.
The fastest growth in business numbers was all in the regions – with Northland, Bay of Plenty, and Hawke’s Bay leading the way. At the other end of the pack, the laggards were Taranaki and Southland.
If you want to understand more about recent entrepreneurship and employment trends in your territorial authority or region, then get in touch (benje@benjepatterson.co.nz). It is also interesting to overlay these entrepreneurship trends against population and regional migration estimates released this week.