Brazil breaks record with 4 million new companies in 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Even with the pandemic, the number of companies opened in the country last year broke a record by reaching the mark of 4,026,776, an increase of 19.7% compared to 2020, according to data presented by the Ministry of Economy in the Map of Companies, a bulletin for the third quarter of 2021.

“It is another year with a historical record of company openings in the country, which shows that the economy has reacted well even in a pandemic scenario,” the bulletin informs.

On the other hand, in the same period, 1,410,870 companies were closed, an increase of 34.6% compared to 2020. The country had a positive balance of 2.6 million business openings, also the largest ever recorded and ended the year with a total of 18,915,002 active companies.

“The data for business openings in the third quarter have shown a continuous advance in recent years, although growth will be less pronounced between 2020 and 2021. The monthly scenario presents only one exception when analyzing only the month of October, which in 2021 presented a slight drop of 1.4% compared to 2020. However, the months of September, November, and December stand out, with historical monthly records for company openings”, the bulletin informs.

Considering only the last four months of 2021, 1,209,634 companies were opened, an increase of 1.8% compared to the same period in 2020 and a drop of 15% compared to the 2nd four months of 2021. A total of 484,470 companies were closed in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 35.7% compared to the third quarter of 2020 and a decrease of 0.4% compared to the second quarter of 2021.

In 2021, Amapá was the state with the highest percentage growth in companies opened in 2021, with a 40.9% increase over 2020, followed by Alagoas (39.2%), Piauí (33%), Paraíba (31.1%), and Bahia (30.6%). On the other hand, Amapá was also the one that closed the most – an increase of 65.1% – in percentage terms compared to 2020, followed by Alagoas (58.6%), Paraíba (55.2%), Piauí (51.4%), and Sergipe (50.3%).

The survey also points out that the average time to open a business has decreased by almost a third compared to that recorded at the beginning of 2019 – it fell from five days and nine hours to two days – and 57% of new businesses are opened in less than one day. The average time to open a company is less than two days in 19 states. Sergipe and the Federal District stand out as the fastest, with a time of one day. Among the capitals, Maceió (Alagoas) is the fastest, with an average of 14 hours.