Business registrations down, bankruptcies up in Q2 2026

In the second quarter of 2026, registrations of businesses in the EU decreased by 0.5% compared with the first quarter of 2026, while bankruptcies increased by 5.7%.

This information comes from data on business registrations and bankruptcies published by Eurostat today. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article on quarterly registrations of new businesses and declarations of bankruptcies.

Source dataset: sts_rb_q

Registrations down by 3.6% in industry

In the second quarter of 2026, business registrations decreased in 5 out of 8 sectors of the business economy. Industry registered the largest drop (-3.6%), followed by accommodation and food services (-3.4%) and education and social services (-3.2%). The number of business registrations increased sharply in the information and communication sector (+8.8%) and an increase was also recorded in construction sector (+1.0%), while financial services remained stable (+0.0%).

Bankruptcies up by 21.1% in education and social activities

Bankruptcies increased in 5 out of 8 sectors. The largest increases were recorded in education and social activities (+21.1%), transport (+11.4%) and financial services (+6.8%). Decreases in bankruptcies were recorded in the accommodation and food services (-2.6%), construction (-1.7%) and trade (-1.2%).