The number of registered business entities nationwide has reached 181 million.

Release Date:

2023-11-07

　BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) — According to data on business entities for the first three quarters of this year released by the State Administration for Market Regulation on the 7th, the total number of business entities in China has reached a new milestone. As of the end of September 2023, the country had 181 million registered business entities, an increase of 6.7 percent compared with the end of 2022.

　　Businesses and individual industrial and commercial households are thriving. In the first three quarters, 24.808 million new market entities were established nationwide, up 12.7% year on year. Among them, 7.518 million new enterprises were registered, a year-on-year increase of 15.4%, while 17.196 million new individually owned businesses were registered, up 11.7% from the same period last year.

　　Private and foreign-invested enterprises are enjoying strong growth momentum. In the first three quarters, newly established private enterprises increased by 15.3% year on year, while newly established foreign-invested enterprises grew by 29.3% over the same period. This robust performance across diverse ownership structures reflects steadily improving market expectations and gradually strengthening investor confidence, underscoring that China remains a highly attractive destination for international investment.

　　Newly established enterprises across all sectors posted steady growth. In the first three quarters, the primary sector saw a year-on-year increase of 23.6%, recording the fastest pace; the secondary sector grew by 5.3%, demonstrating robust momentum; and the tertiary sector expanded by 17.2%. Notably, the accommodation and catering industries, which were directly hit by the pandemic, rebounded rapidly, with year-on-year growth exceeding 40%.

　　Under the guidance and impetus of a series of policies and measures aimed at expanding domestic demand, bolstering market confidence, and fostering the development of the private sector, the endogenous driving forces of China’s business entities have continued to strengthen, with enterprises and individual business households experiencing sustained and steady growth. Going forward, market regulatory authorities will proactively fulfill their functions to create a fairer and more orderly business environment for all types of market players.