NUMBER AND STRUCTURE OF BUSINESS ENTITIES, MARCH 2026

The comparison of the number of legal entities in the Register of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics with the number of active legal entities in other registers shows that the share of active legal entities was 70.0%.

This discrepancy occurs due to differences in the methodology of the data entry method and of defining activities applied in individual registers.

The data on the number of entities in crafts and trades and free lances refer to the number of self-employed entrepreneurs, with or without employees, as well as to the number of persons engaged in a professional activity according to pension insurance records.

The data on the structure of business entities by economic activities show that half of the registered and active entities belonged to the following four activity sections: Wholesale and retail trade, with 11.1% of registered and 12.7% of active entities, Manufacturing, with 6.8% of registered and 8.5% of active entities, Professional, scientific and technical activities, with 10.7% of registered and 13.2% of active entities, and Other service activities, with 21.1% of registered and 13.6% of active entities.

The share of profit entities in the total active business entities was 81.6% and their structure by economic activities shows that 65.7% of them belonged to five activity sections, shown in the following order of share size: Wholesale and retail trade (15.4%), Professional, scientific and technical activities (16.1%), Manufacturing (10.4%), Construction (15.1%), and Accommodation and food service activities (8.7%).

The share of non-profit active entities was 18.4%. Half of them were classified into the activity section Other service activities. The remaining half was distributed between Arts, entertainment and recreation (29.7%), Education (7.8%), Human health and social work activities (6.7%), and Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (2.7%).

NKD 2025 activity sections
A	Agriculture, forestry and fishing
B	Mining and quarrying
C	Manufacturing
D	Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
E	Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
F	Construction
G	Wholesale and retail trade
H	Transportation and storage
I	Accommodation and food service activities
J	Publishing, broadcasting and content production and distribution activities
K	Telecommunication, computer programming, consulting,
	computing infrastructure and other information service activities
L	Financial and insurance activities
M	Real estate activities
N	Professional, scientific and technical activities
O	Administrative and support service activities
P	Public administration and defence; compulsory social security
Q	Education
R	Human health and social work activities
S	Arts, entertainment and recreation
T	Other service activities
U	Activities of households as employers;
	undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use
V	Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies

The structure of active legal entities by ownership types shows that private ownership predominated with 80.8% of entities, while 0.8% of entities were owned by the state, 0.3% of them were in mixed ownership and 0.3% of entities were in co-operative ownership. The ownership of 17.8% of legal entities was not monitored.

The ownership structure by activities shows that privately owned entities were predominant in service activities, e.g. Wholesale and retail trade had a share of 98.6%, Real estate activities of 99.2%, and Transportation and storage of 98.4%. Approximately the same share of private ownership existed in the productive activities such as Construction (99.4%), Manufacturing (98.2%), and Telecommunication, computer programming, consulting, computing infrastructure and other information service activities (99.6%).

 

Observation of the structure of active legal entities according to the number of persons in paid employment shows that the highest share (55.4%) belonged to entities employing 1 – 9 persons, followed by 33.5% of entities without persons in employment, 8.6% of entities employing 10 – 49 persons and 2.2% of entities employing 50 – 249 persons, while entities employing more than 250 persons had a share of only 0.4%.

Limited liability companies were markedly predominant in the structure of trade companies by legal organisational forms, with a share of 73.8% of registered and 74.8% of active ones. Simple limited liability companies held second place by their number, with a share of 25.2% of registered and 24.3% of active companies. Other legal forms of trade companies constituted the remaining share of 1.0%.

The structure of registered non-profit legal entities by legal organisational forms shows that associations, institutions, co-operations and similar organisations had a share of 96.9%, while state government bodies and bodies of local and regional self-government units had a share of 3.1%.

Concerning the activity of the mentioned legal entities, there were 42.5% of active ones. Their structure by activities shows that they were entities belonging to four activity sections: Other service activities, with 59.0% of registered and 37.1% of active ones, Public administration and defence; compulsory social security, with 3.6% of registered and 31.7% of active ones, Human health and social work activities, with 4.8% of registered and 59.5% of active entities, and Education, with only 3.7% of registered ones but with the largest share of active entities (90.3%).

The data on the territorial distribution of business entities at the county level show that slightly less than one third of the total number of registered business entities (legal entities) were situated in the City of Zagreb. The City of Zagreb, however, had a significantly lower share of entities in crafts and trades and free lances, amounting to 20.3%. The County of Split-Dalmatia followed, with a share of 10.6% of legal entities and 14.0% of natural persons.

Three counties had a share larger than 5.0% of registered legal entities: the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar (7.8%), the County of Istria (7.2%), and the County of Zagreb (6.8%). The number of natural persons came in the same order.

The territorial structure of active trade companies was different in relation to the structure of the registered ones. Hence, the City of Zagreb had a share of 33.8% of registered and 33.0% of active entities, while the second largest county, the County of Split-Dalmatia, had a share of 10.8% of active and 10.9% of registered entities.

Data on changes in registered entities are divided into three groups: creations, deletions and harmonisations. They show that, in the mentioned period, the number of deletions increased, the number of creations decreased, and the number of harmonisations stayed the same.

The share of trade companies in the number of newly created entities was 87.9% in the observed period.

 

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

I Introduction

On the basis of the Act on the National Classification of Activities (NN, No. 98/94), the Decision on the National Classification of Activities – NKD 2025 (NN, No. 47/24) and the Ordinance on the Classification of Business Entities According to the National Classification of Activities – NKD 2025 (NN, No. 81/24), the Croatian Bureau of Statistics keeps the Register of Business Entities (hereinafter referred to as: the Register). The Register, pursuant to the provisions of the aforementioned Ordinance, includes legal entities, state government bodies and bodies of local and regional self-government units and parts thereof (hereinafter referred to as: business entities). The Register does not presently include natural persons engaged in activities according to regulations, foreign associations headquartered in the Republic of Croatia and business entities not headquartered in the Republic of Croatia.

The NKD 2025 is based on the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community – NACE Rev. 2.1, which is obligatory in EU Member States.

II Methods and sources of data collection

Upon registration, each business entity is assigned a seven-digit registration number, while its constituent parts are assigned an additional ordinal number.

All business entities and parts thereof entered into the Register are also assigned an activity code according to the NKD 2025.

Registered business entities are classified according to their prevailing activities in such a way that a numerical denotation of a class of the main activity is defined according to the NKD 2025. When, on the basis of a formal decision on registration with a competent authority or by law, a business entity is established to be engaged in more than one activity, the first classification according to the NKD 2025 is made upon the proposal of the business entity. Every subsequent classification of the business entity resulting in a change of the main activity is made in the following cases:

1) Upon the request of the business entity

2) Upon official duty, based on a change in the decision on registration with a competent authority or a change in the law.

The activity of the constituent parts of a business entity is established on the basis of a decision on registration with a competent authority or law on creation or the underlying purpose of creation, irrespective of the activity of the business entity they are a part of.

Entry, registration, change and withdrawal of business entities are updated daily in the Register. Legal bases for updating the Register are the following:

1) Registers kept by:

− trade courts

− ministries

− state administration offices

− other registration bodies

2) Laws, decisions and other legal documents published in “Narodne novine”.

Registered business entities are structured according to the legal basis, as follows:

− trade companies, enterprises, co-operatives and institutions registered in the Register upon decisions of registration bodies (trade courts),

− state government bodies and bodies of local and regional self-government units registered according to the law

− associations, foundations, political parties and others registered on the basis of decisions of registry bodies according to specific laws.

Difficulties in updating of a significant proportion of units in the Register are a consequence of long-term transition periods during which register bodies harmonise business entities according to a new legislation. This also postpones the procedure of deletions of business entities that have not submitted a request for harmonisation in line with new regulations. Consequently, the Register data have constantly been changed in line with data on business entities subsequently collected from publicly available databases.

A lack in the coverage of the Register is related to business entities engaged in activities of crafts and free lances, foreign associations headquartered in the Republic of Croatia and business entities not headquartered in the Republic of Croatia. In addition, it must be pointed out that there are methodological discrepancies between the Register as an administrative database and the Statistical Business Register (hereinafter referred to as: eSPRi).

The data of the Register of Business Entities are linked to administrative databases through an identification number, a registration number and a personal identification number.

III Meaning of individual terms     

Business entities are legal entities and natural persons that perform activities according to the law, public government bodies (government administration bodies, other government bodies, local and regional self-government units, legal entities and other public authorities, legal entities established by the Republic of Croatia or local and regional self-government units, legal entities performing public service, legal entities financed mostly or completely from the state or local and regional self-government units’ budgets, that is, from public funds (levies, duties, etc.), on the basis of a special act, as well as trade companies in which the Republic of Croatia or the local and regional self-government units hold individual or joint majority ownership).

Registered legal entities (business entities) are units that are entered into the Register. These are: trade companies, institutions, co-operatives, associations, political parties, public government bodies and other non-harmonised units that had legal personality according to the legislation previously in force.

Active legal entities (business entities) are registered legal entities entered into the Register, for which the activity status has been determined according to the eSPRi data.

Natural persons are units that carry out activities in line with the legislation and refer to crafts and trades and free lances.

Main activity is an activity established according to the largest share in the total value added in the case of business entities that make profit through production, trade or rendering of services on the market or by the largest share in the number of persons in employment according to the payroll and gross paid-off salaries in the case of business entities that do not make profit through production, trade and rendering of services on the market.

Identification number is a permanent identification mark of each business entity. It is used in all activities of official statistics. It is determined in the process of assigning a control number according to module 11, while any part of a business entity is at the same time assigned a four-digit ordinal number along with the identification number.

Registration number is the number under which a business entity is entered in a court or another specific register.

Personal identification number (OIB) is a permanent identification designation of an OIB holder, used by OIB users in official records, in everyday activities and in data exchange. OIB is unique, non-revealing, unchangeable and non-iterative.

Legal organisational form is a characteristic of units in the Register that divides them as joint-stock companies, limited liability companies, simple limited liability companies, co-operatives, institutions, associations, state government bodies and bodies of local and regional self-government units and other legal organisational forms. A legal organisational form of the Register units has been determined by a decision of a competent registration body or by a regulation on creation that is a basis for their entry into the Register.

Type of ownership is a characteristic of units entered into the Register that indicates the ownership structure of the unit and refers to the ownership of assets, that is, to start-up deposit of a business entity.

Concerning business entities entered into the Commercial Court register, an ownership mark is designated when registering to the Register of Business Entities. As for business entities entered at other registry bodies, the ownership mark is not designated when registering to the Register of Business Entities and, therefore, they are entered under ''No ownership'' under the item Ownership types.

Number of persons in employment is a feature used for indicating the size and structure of legal entities. It is derived from Fina’s annual financial reports. In order to update this feature, as indicated in the tables, the data have been harmonised with the regular monthly statistical survey that covers employment.

 

 

Abbreviations
EU	European Union
Fina	Financial Agency
NKD 2025	National Classification of Activities, 2025 version
NN	Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia
Symbols
-	no occurrence
0,0	value not zero but less than 0.05 of the unit of measure used

 

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