Number of Businesses in France: 6,093,000 in 2026

How many businesses? It depends on your question#

The right answer depends on what you want to do. To size a market, use 6,093,000. For an offering aimed at owners with employees, use the 1,590,175 employer businesses. Only about 6 in 10 registered businesses within Insee's scope are actually operating (62.4%).

Three steps for anyone selling to businesses. Look beyond registrations: about 3.67 million registered businesses have no actual activity (see how the count narrows). Call the owner: 59.3% of registered businesses have entrepreneur individuel (sole proprietor) status, and the owner makes decisions alone. Check before calling: in our review of randomly selected registered businesses, about one in nine had already closed (see the review).

How many businesses are there in France?#

France had 5.2 million market-sector businesses outside agriculture and finance in 2023, according to Insee Focus n° 372, published on December 10, 2025. The exact count is 5,178,283 businesses. Insee has not yet published a business count for 2026: our estimate below fills that gap.

There is more than one business count for France. With a broader scope that includes financial activities, Insee counted 5.8 million economically active businesses in 2023 (Insee Première n° 2097, April 2026).

The Sirene registry listed 8.9 million legal units in 2022, including 5.5 million economically active units, according to Insee. There is no contradiction: each source counts something different.

Our estimate for 2026 is 6,093,000 active businesses: the next section shows how we get from the registry to that figure, with estimates ranging from 6.08 to 6.49 million depending on the calculation method.

From the registry to active businesses: narrowing the count#

The Sirene registry lists 16,662,023 legal units with no declared closure as of September 24, 2026. That is not the business count: the vast majority of entries represent other types of entities. The table below groups them by type, from the largest group to the business scope.

Why does Insee exclude these groups? Because European business demography rules cover only productive, market-sector units outside agriculture. In its post on active businesses, Insee explains that its 2022 count excludes 1.1 million legal units outside its sectoral and geographic scope, including 800,000 agricultural and 200,000 foreign units, then 3.8 million nonproductive or nonmarket units, including 2.6 million rentals of housing, land, and other real estate and 1 million associations. We applied the same rule to the 2026 registry.

Three groups matter most for a quick read. Real estate rental accounts for a fifth of the registry: most of these units are SCI, which we count in the number of SCI in France. Associations and groups account for almost a tenth. Agriculture accounts for 5.0%, with its own count in the number of farms in France.

Next comes the move from registered to active businesses. The table breaks down the headline figure and the remainder.

The 6,093,000 include the 364,947 active real estate businesses counted by Insee, including at least 80,900 rental companies that our registered-business scope excludes. The 62.4% share and the inactive remainder (3,666,706) are therefore approximate, with the remainder on the low side.

The calculation: on the same date of the year, September 24, 2024, our scope contained 9,592,053 registered businesses, and Insee counted 5,987,885 active businesses in 2024. The ratio, calculated by Scalon, is 62.4% (63.0% in 2022, 62.0% in 2023). Excluding real estate, it is 60.4%: we apply that rate to registered businesses in 2026 outside real estate, then add Insee's active real estate count for 2024 unchanged (364,947 businesses), since our scope does not cover that sector in the same way. Recalculated at the end of 2022, our scope comes within 0.6% of Insee's figure (8,849,864 versus 8.9 million; 8,768,391 as of September 24, 2022, within 1.5%). Other methods yield 6,092,500, 6,075,700, and 6,097,600; two methods yield higher estimates: the same calculation as of December 31, 6,295,200, which we set aside, and an extension of Insee's trend, 6,488,100 (details in the method section).

Under Insee's definition, a business is "active" if it generated revenue, employed staff, produced goods or services, or invested during the year. In practice: more than one in three registered businesses has no actual activity. It stays in the registry because a business can stop without reporting it, or register without ever starting.

In practice: a list drawn from the entire registry gives you 16.7 million entries, but the market of active businesses contains only about 6.1 million.

What a review of 100 randomly selected businesses reveals#

The registry does not tell you who is actually operating. To take a closer look, Scalon randomly selected 100 registered businesses within scope: 53 entrepreneurs individuels and 47 companies. For each, we gathered information from the registry, published financial statements, legal notices, and public business listings, then checked uncertain cases against public web pages. Two independent reviews classified each business; they agreed on 88 out of 100 businesses, and Scalon resolved the other cases based on evidence.

In our sample, 18 out of 100 businesses show evidence of closure, including 12 with no remaining active location in the registry. Empty shells with no active location are overrepresented in the sample: they account for 5.8% of registered businesses, but 12 were selected. After adjusting the results to match the registry's composition by legal form and empty-shell status, about 11% of registered businesses show evidence of closure (between 7.5% and 15.8%), 33% show evidence of activity, and 55% have no evidence of either. This is consistent with our Insee-based figures, which put the share of registered businesses with no actual activity at 37.6%: the review proves inactivity for some, while the rest remain among businesses with no trace at all.

Entrepreneurs individuels are almost invisible: 42 out of 53 leave no public trace, with no financial statements, employees, or listing. More than one in two companies, by contrast, shows activity (27 out of 47). But 14 out of 47 have already closed: a company also needs checking before you call.

In practice: in a list drawn from registered businesses (excluding associations, rental SCI, and agriculture), about one in nine entries has already closed, and more than one in two leaves no evidence in the public sources we reviewed.

Check a business yourself in three steps. First, remove empty shells with no active location in the registry: in our review, all 12 businesses in that situation had closed. Next, look for recent evidence: financial statements filed for 2024 or 2025, reported employees, or a public listing showing the business as open; legal notices show dissolutions. For an entrepreneur individuel with no listing or financial statements, only a call can settle the question.

How precise is this review?

With 100 businesses, each share remains approximate: at 95% confidence, proven activity (34 out of 100) falls between 25.5% and 43.7%, and proven closure (18 out of 100) between 11.7% and 26.7%, in the unadjusted sample. These ranges exceed the Observatory's precision threshold for a published figure: the review checks the order of magnitude rather than providing the headline count. Agreement between the two reviews (88 out of 100) falls between 80.2% and 93.0%. Simple random sample from the 9,759,706 registered businesses within scope (seed 20261106; 8 out-of-scope units from an initial draw were replaced by the next units in the same draw); weighting by legal form × empty-shell status, based on each group's share in the registry, with 95% confidence intervals from resampling 5,000 draws: closure between 7.5% and 15.8%, activity between 25.7% and 41.3%, no evidence between 48.1% and 62.2%; the first review uses only the evidence file, while the second also uses public web pages; rules and evidence files are in the study's supporting materials.

Business, legal unit, location: what each figure counts#

Three terms refer to three different things. A legal unit is the entity recorded in the Sirene registry, identified by its SIREN number (the French company ID), a nine-digit number. In the market sector, it is a company or an entrepreneur individuel.

A business, under Insee's definition, is the smallest combination of legal units that makes decisions independently. An independent SME (small or medium-sized enterprise) usually consists of a single legal unit, while a corporate group combines several. Within the 2023 scope, France had 5,530,439 legal units and 5,178,283 businesses.

A location is a place where a business operates: an auto repair shop, a store, or a workshop. It has a fourteen-digit SIRET number (the French ID of a business location).

Why do the numbers differ so much? The gaps come from the entity counted, the scope of activities, and the year, rather than an error. A figure without a scope or date tells you nothing.

The 5.8 million figure (5,755,200) comes from Insee's SIDE system, which replaces the former business and location register. Insee warns that its figures may differ from other published datasets. Put simply: SIDE is the database where Insee uses tax and social-security filings to identify businesses that actually operated during the year.

For prospecting, the useful unit is the location rather than the company. A brand with twenty branches is one business, but twenty places to approach.

That is what the Observatory counts, industry by industry: 69,062 auto repair shops in France in 2026, for example. A count is still market research rather than a prospect list.

What other sources report

Source	Figure	Why it differs from 6,093,000
Insee, Focus n° 372	5,178,283 businesses in 2023	Businesses in the economic sense (a corporate group counts once), excluding agriculture and finance, in 2023
Insee Première n° 2097	5,755,200 in 2023	Same entity as our count (active legal units), including finance, three years earlier
Insee, Dossier complet France	5,987,885 in 2024	Same entity, two years earlier; our estimate carries over its real estate count unchanged and projects the rest to 2026
Insee, blog post	8.9 million registered and 5.5 million active in 2022	The first counts registrations, the second activity, in 2022
Urssaf (the French social-security contributions agency)	3.031 million micro-entrepreneur accounts (France's simplified sole-proprietor status, also called auto-entrepreneur), 1.66 million active, at the end of 2025	A single business status, and a quarterly activity criterion
Scalon	6,093,000 active in 2026, out of 9,759,706 registered	September 24, 2026 registry, ratio of Insee's active count to registered businesses calculated by Scalon

Key business statistics in France: 96% are microenterprises#

Here is the breakdown of businesses in France by size in 2023, according to Focus n° 372 (5,178,283 in total):

• 4,995,894 microenterprises;

• 174,614 SMEs excluding microenterprises;

• 7,442 ETI (mid-size companies, France's statistical category between SMEs and large companies);

• 333 large companies.

Microenterprises account for 96.5% of all businesses, based on our calculation using these figures. Yet only 17% of all employees work for them. At the other end, just over 300 large companies employ 28%.

Together, these businesses employ nearly 16 million full-time-equivalent employees (part-time hours converted to full-time positions).

Business size thresholds (2008 decree)

The categories follow the thresholds in decree n° 2008-1354 of December 18, 2008, implementing article 51 of the 2008 loi de modernisation de l'économie, as summarized in the same Focus:

• Microenterprise: fewer than 10 people, and annual revenue or a balance sheet total of no more than €2M;

• SME: fewer than 250 people, and revenue of no more than €50M or a balance sheet total of no more than €43M;

• ETI: outside the SME category, fewer than 5,000 people, and revenue of no more than €1.5B or a balance sheet total of no more than €2B;

• Large company: any business that does not fall into the preceding categories.

A business with more than 250 people is therefore no longer an SME. It is an ETI if it employs fewer than 5,000 people and stays within either of the two financial limits listed above. Otherwise, it is a large company.

Do not confuse a microenterprise with a micro-entrepreneur (France's simplified sole-proprietor status). The first is a statistical category; the second is an individual operating under the micro-entrepreneur tax regime. Of the 5.5 million active businesses in 2022, 2.5 million were companies, 1.8 million were micro-entrepreneurs, and 1.2 million were entrepreneurs individuels.

The registry offers another view of large corporate groups. In the registry, Insee classifies 78,224 legal units as part of an ETI and 31,986 as part of a large company. These figures are consistent with the 82,113 and 30,693 legal units in Focus n° 372. Yet the Focus counts 7,442 ETI and 333 large companies: an ETI therefore combines about ten companies on average (82,113 for 7,442, or about 11), and a large company nearly a hundred (30,693 for 333, or about 92). To sell to a corporate group, look for the headquarters that makes decisions rather than each company.

Registered businesses can also be grouped by headcount. The vast majority have no reported employees, which is normal for a market made up mostly of people working on their own.

This table counts the 9,759,706 registered businesses, comprising the estimated 6,093,000 active businesses plus the 3,666,706 registered businesses with no activity; the registry does not show which headcount brackets the latter fall into (data to request from Insee).

In practice: out of 100 registered businesses, nearly 87 have no reported employees, 11 have 1 to 9, and about 2 have 10 or more. An offering that requires a team, a purchasing department, or an IT manager therefore reaches only a very small share of registered businesses.

Who decides? Legal forms and employers#

Legal form tells you who decides. In the registry, 59.3% of registered businesses are entrepreneurs individuels, including micro-entrepreneurs: the owner makes decisions, signs, and answers the phone alone. Companies, most often SAS and SARL (French company forms, roughly a corporation and a limited liability company), are run by an executive and sometimes have several shareholders. In a Scop (a French worker cooperative), employees are the majority shareholders: our guide to the list of Scops in France shows where to find the official list.

Among active businesses, entrepreneurs individuels remain the majority, though by a smaller margin:

For each legal form, estimated active counts use the active share calculated from Insee's 2023 figures (Insee's active count divided by our reconstructed registration count: 54.7% of entrepreneurs individuels, 73.2% of companies, at the same date of the year), treat the 561,751 businesses with no remaining active location as inactive, and scale the results to a total of 6,093,000.

Employer status adds another piece of information. In the registry, 1,590,175 businesses (16.3%) have at least one location with employer status: 195,841 entrepreneurs individuels and 1,394,334 companies. Insee counted 1.4 million employer businesses in 2022, including 150,000 entrepreneurs individuels and 1.25 million companies. The two counts differ because one uses registry entries and the other measures actual activity during the year, but both are on the same general scale. The registry itself provides a second, narrower measure: 1,301,851 registered businesses report a headcount bracket of at least one employee (headcount table above). These are two separate fields in the registry, filled in independently; we use the first, broader one to count employers.

In practice: for payroll, recruiting, training, or group health insurance, the target is the 1,590,175 employer businesses rather than the 9,759,706 registered businesses. For accounting, banking, or business insurance, every business owner counts, including those who work alone.

How many locations and how many decision-makers?#

A business is not a location. The 9,759,706 registered businesses have 10,291,792 active locations in the registry, or 1.05 per business. The average hides a small group of networks: 579,608 businesses (5.9%) have at least two active locations, totaling 1,673,445 locations, or one in six.

This table counts registered businesses; the estimated 3,666,706 with no activity are spread across these rows, starting with the 561,751 empty shells. Concentration increases toward the top: 635 businesses have 100 or more active locations, totaling 177,659 locations. For these networks, the question is not "how many businesses" but "who decides, headquarters or the branch?"

One last figure to know: 561,751 registered businesses have no remaining active location in the registry. That signals an empty shell: a company whose places of business are all marked closed in the registry, or that never had any.

In practice: for an offering sold on-site (installation, delivery, maintenance, security), count locations, or 10,291,792. For an offering negotiated once with the decision-maker, count businesses, but remove the empty shells.

Which sectors are they in?#

Three broad sectors account for 41% of registered businesses: trade and auto repair, professional, scientific, and technical activities (consulting, research, engineering), and construction. The table shows registered businesses, estimated active businesses, and employers in each.

In practice: business services (consulting, research, cleaning, staffing) account for 21.3% of registered businesses, more than the entire trade sector (16.7%). An offering aimed only at "retailers" leaves out more than eight in ten businesses.

All sectors and the ten most common activities

Broad sector	Registered businesses	Share
Trade and auto repair	1,626,415	16.7%
Professional, scientific, and technical activities	1,325,018	13.6%
Construction	1,044,668	10.7%
Administrative and support services	749,359	7.7%
Human health and social work	718,252	7.4%
Other services (hair care, beauty, repair…)	634,775	6.5%
Accommodation and food services	584,312	6.0%
Transportation and storage	489,910	5.0%
Information and communication	456,411	4.7%
Manufacturing	447,937	4.6%
Arts, entertainment, and recreation	430,040	4.4%
Finance and insurance	425,370	4.4%
Education	381,835	3.9%
Real estate (excluding rental)	277,650	2.8%
Energy	141,767	1.5%
Water, waste, and remediation	21,935	0.2%
Mining and quarrying	2,721	0.0%
Unknown activity	1,273	0.0%
Households as employers	32	0.0%
Extraterritorial organizations	26	0.0%
Total	9,759,706	100%

Specific activity and NAF code (the French activity classification code, also called APE code)	Registered businesses	Share
Business and other management consulting (70.22Z)	411,558	4.2%
Direct selling (47.99A)	269,648	2.8%
Other personal services not elsewhere classified (96.09Z)	250,561	2.6%
General building cleaning (81.21Z)	235,591	2.4%
Other postal and courier activities, including parcel delivery (53.20Z)	234,821	2.4%
Rehabilitation, orthopedic device, and podiatry services (86.90E)	179,811	1.8%
Fast-food services (56.10C)	169,208	1.7%
General masonry and structural building work (43.99C)	162,069	1.7%
Full-service restaurants (56.10A)	158,134	1.6%
Real estate agencies (68.31Z)	156,590	1.6%

Business consulting leads with 4.2% of registered businesses. No activity exceeds that level: the market is highly fragmented, and no single activity code captures "businesses" as a whole.

Each activity is a market of its own, with its own suppliers and decision-makers. The Observatory already covers several in detail, listed below. These pages count operating locations rather than registered businesses: their figures cannot be added to this article's counts.

Markets already counted by the Observatory

Sector	Explore this sector in our count of…
Restaurants (full-service restaurants: 158,134 registered businesses; fast food: 169,208)	number of restaurants in France
Bars	number of bars in France
Auto repair shops	auto repair shops in France
Bakeries	number of bakeries in France
Hair salons	number of hair salons in France
Hotels	number of hotels in France
Real estate agencies (156,590 businesses registered under this code)	number of real estate agencies in France
Pharmacies	how many pharmacies are there in France
Doctors	number of doctors in France
Dentists	number of dentists in France
Used-car dealers	number of used-car dealers in France
Campgrounds	number of campgrounds in France
Winegrowers	number of winegrowers in France
Accounting firms	number of accounting firms in France
Opticians	number of opticians in France
Tobacconists	number of tobacconists in France
Kebab shops	number of kebab shops in France
Golf courses	number of golf courses in France
Nursing homes (EHPAD)	number of nursing homes in France
Supermarkets	list of supermarkets in France

Where are the businesses? The geographic breakdown#

Île-de-France has the most business headquarters: 2,306,516, or 25.2% of headquarters with a known location. It leads Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (1,097,693) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (911,003). Relative to population, the ranking changes: Île-de-France still leads with 185.1 businesses per 1,000 residents, but Corse (182.4) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (174.6) rank ahead of most large regions.

Density is calculated using headquarters with a known location. Active estimates follow the method in the "Who decides?" section: each region retains its own mix of entrepreneurs individuels and companies.

Paris is a special case: 874,033 headquarters, or 415.5 per 1,000 residents, more than three times the national average (134.0). The registered headquarters is not always where a business operates: a company can register its headquarters at an address where it does not work. For an offering that requires a visit, start with business locations rather than headquarters.

The highest densities in metropolitan France by département (French county-level administrative area) are: Paris (415.5), Alpes-Maritimes (216.3), Corse-du-Sud (196.4), Hautes-Alpes (175.3), Var (170.6). The lowest: Aisne (78.2), Pas-de-Calais (81.1), Sarthe (85.0), Meuse (85.5), Haute-Marne (86.2).

Départements: registered businesses and density per 1,000 residents

Départements are ranked by number of registered businesses. The registered headquarters may differ from the place of business.

Headquarters département	Registered businesses	Per 1,000 residents
Paris (75)	874,033	415.5
Bouches-du-Rhône (13)	337,683	161.8
Rhône (69)	307,922	160.8
Hauts-de-Seine (92)	274,049	165.6
Nord (59)	266,286	101.8
Gironde (33)	264,127	156.2
Seine-Saint-Denis (93)	254,403	149.3
Alpes-Maritimes (06)	244,094	216.3
Haute-Garonne (31)	206,429	140.3
Hérault (34)	206,147	167.6
Val-de-Marne (94)	202,279	141.8
Yvelines (78)	194,935	131.3
Var (83)	190,997	170.6
Loire-Atlantique (44)	176,886	118.9
Seine-et-Marne (77)	175,440	119.5
Isère (38)	168,794	129.9
Val-d'Oise (95)	168,537	131.5
Essonne (91)	162,840	121.7
Bas-Rhin (67)	143,733	123.5
Ille-et-Vilaine (35)	128,082	114.3
Haute-Savoie (74)	127,340	147.9
Seine-Maritime (76)	118,657	94.1
Pas-de-Calais (62)	118,184	81.1
La Réunion (974)	110,219	123.9
Gard (30)	103,853	134.7
Moselle (57)	101,163	96.2
Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64)	100,339	142.0
Finistère (29)	95,258	102.0
Charente-Maritime (17)	90,185	134.1
Morbihan (56)	90,171	115.1
Vaucluse (84)	87,913	153.7
Loire (42)	87,120	112.5
Maine-et-Loire (49)	84,486	101.3
Calvados (14)	82,610	116.4
Martinique (972)	82,040	227.5
Haut-Rhin (68)	81,146	105.3
Guadeloupe (971)	81,136	211.2
Oise (60)	79,437	95.7
Vendée (85)	76,307	106.9
Savoie (73)	75,932	169.4
Ain (01)	74,108	109.1
Puy-de-Dôme (63)	73,931	111.3
Drôme (26)	71,315	136.0
Pyrénées-Orientales (66)	70,473	141.8
Loiret (45)	69,806	101.0
Meurthe-et-Moselle (54)	69,723	95.2
Indre-et-Loire (37)	68,198	110.1
Côtes-d'Armor (22)	65,706	107.4
Côte-d'Or (21)	65,157	120.6
Marne (51)	60,369	107.2
Eure (27)	60,252	100.0
Landes (40)	57,751	133.2
Saône-et-Loire (71)	57,237	104.0
Doubs (25)	56,846	103.9
Dordogne (24)	52,814	126.5
Somme (80)	50,640	89.6
Aude (11)	48,518	127.8
Sarthe (72)	48,197	85.0
Tarn (81)	47,944	120.7
Manche (50)	44,984	90.4
Eure-et-Loir (28)	44,900	103.7
Vienne (86)	43,967	100.2
Aisne (02)	40,946	78.2
Ardèche (07)	39,312	117.6
Vosges (88)	39,095	109.4
Lot-et-Garonne (47)	38,798	116.3
Charente (16)	38,269	108.5
Haute-Vienne (87)	37,618	100.8
Deux-Sèvres (79)	34,257	91.3
Yonne (89)	34,102	102.6
Loir-et-Cher (41)	33,303	101.4
Corse-du-Sud (2A)	33,052	196.4
Allier (03)	32,742	98.2
Aveyron (12)	32,572	116.5
Haute-Corse (2B)	31,797	169.9
Tarn-et-Garonne (82)	30,929	116.4
Aube (10)	30,899	99.5
Guyane (973)	29,167	99.2
Jura (39)	29,012	112.5
Hautes-Pyrénées (65)	28,487	123.1
Mayenne (53)	28,175	92.2
Cher (18)	26,967	90.3
Corrèze (19)	26,659	110.7
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04)	25,170	149.8
Hautes-Alpes (05)	25,146	175.3
Haute-Loire (43)	25,099	109.8
Orne (61)	24,905	90.5
Gers (32)	24,306	126.2
Ardennes (08)	23,879	89.8
Haute-Saône (70)	22,087	94.7
Lot (46)	22,072	125.1
Mayotte (976)	22,001	68.1
Ariège (09)	20,178	129.6
Nièvre (58)	19,314	95.9
Indre (36)	19,043	88.1
Meuse (55)	15,415	85.5
Haute-Marne (52)	14,502	86.2
Cantal (15)	14,078	97.6
Territoire de Belfort (90)	13,071	93.2
Creuse (23)	11,390	98.6
Lozère (48)	8,404	109.9

Where are businesses online? Public listings and contact details#

A public business listing is an online entry for a place of business on maps and in directories (name, address, phone number, hours). Within our business scope, 1,484,523 active locations are linked to such a listing, or 14.4% of the 10,291,792. They represent 1,355,977 businesses, or 13.9% of registered businesses.

These locations are easy to reach: 95.4% of their public listings show a phone number (1,415,696) and 51.9% a website (770,215). Listings mark 15,418 of them (1.0%) as closed even though the registry still shows them as active: the registry lags behind reality.

B2B takeaway: 86% of registered businesses have no public listing linked to their locations in our sources. A list built from public listings captures only one in seven. For the rest, the registry is the only source, and it provides neither a phone number nor a website.

How much revenue do businesses generate?#

Only some businesses publish financial statements. Of 9,759,706 registered businesses, 1,191,495 have published statements for at least one fiscal year, or 12.2%. Small companies can keep their statements confidential, and entrepreneurs individuels do not publish them. These figures therefore cover only the most visible part of the market.

Among the 342,943 businesses with recent public statements (fiscal year ending in 2024 or later, with positive revenue), half generate less than €370,000 a year. About a quarter are below €100,000: 26.8% fall into that group. At the other end, 3.0% exceed €50M.

Revenue is highly concentrated. The largest 1% account for 75.1% of published revenue, and the top 1,000 businesses generate 63.7%. In practice: sorting a list by revenue quickly puts the largest businesses first, but most of the market by business count consists of small operations generating less than €1M.

Read these figures with care: businesses that publish financial statements are larger than those that do not. When a company operates several locations, its published revenue covers the company as a whole rather than any single location. This study shows business sizes rather than a ranking.

How many businesses have been created, and how many will there be in 2026?#

To our knowledge, no official projection of the number of businesses in 2026 has been published. Scalon's estimate of 6,093,000 active businesses in 2026 projects Insee's counts forward (see how the count narrows from registrations to active businesses). The latest business counts cover 2023: 5.8 million according to Insee Première n° 2097. For economically active legal units, the most recent count covers 2024: 5,987,885, according to Insee (August 2026).

The number of business formations does not answer that question. It is a flow: each year, businesses are created and others stop operating. The total changes by the difference between the two.

Insee reports 1,165,800 businesses formed in 2025, including 758,600 micro-entrepreneurs, 301,300 companies, and 105,900 entrepreneurs individuels under the standard regime (Insee Première n° 2092, January 28, 2026). Within our scope, the registry records 1,153,283 new businesses for that year, a difference of 1.1%. Between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the third quarter of 2026, Insee counts 1,278,600 new businesses, and business formations in the third quarter of 2026 rose 16.0% year over year (Insee, October 16, 2026). A business formation is a registration: it does not tell you whether the business has started operating.

On the closure side, the registry dates 887,625 closures to 2024 and 920,415 to 2025. One detail helps explain these figures: every December, the registry removes a batch of entrepreneurs individuels, 423,878 in December 2024 and 369,469 in December 2025.

A possible explanation for the December removals

One possibility our review cannot confirm: the timing of automatic deregistrations of micro-entrepreneurs who have reported no revenue for two years, as described by Urssaf. If confirmed, this would mean some December "closures" involve businesses that stopped operating much earlier.

The business population is young: 23.8% of registered businesses are less than 3 years old, and half were created in 2018 or later. At the other end, 41.2% are more than 10 years old and 17.6% more than 20. In practice: a three-year-old list misses nearly a quarter of today's businesses.

Insolvency proceedings are another flow. As of the end of September 2026, Banque de France (France's central bank) counts 71,139 business failures over twelve months; details are in business failures in France.

The business survival rate (the share still active a few years after creation) completes the picture. Of businesses created in 2014, 74.9% are active after 3 years, 64.6% after 5 years, and 50.4% after 9 years (Insee Première n° 2097). Micro-entrepreneurs have lower survival rates: 46.8% after 5 years, compared with 70.5% for companies. These rates are understated because a business that is acquired or changes legal form is counted as having disappeared.

The public figures in this article come from Insee publications in December 2025 and January, April, August, and October 2026; Scalon's figures come from the Sirene registry of September 24, 2026.

How can you use these figures for market research?#

Size an addressable market#

Start with the target for your offering: the "How many businesses? It depends on your question" table gives the count for each target. An offering for any business leader targets 6,093,000 active businesses; an offering for owners with employees targets 1,590,175 employer businesses; and an offering for corporate groups targets Insee's 7,442 ETI and 333 large companies.

Segment the market#

Combine legal form, size, sector, and geography. Three examples from the tables: a payroll offering for companies targets 1,394,334 employer companies; a software vendor based in Lyon targeting Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes has an estimated 724,000 active businesses to approach, including 190,461 employers; a construction supplier has an estimated 654,300 active construction businesses, including 257,700 employers.

Choose a territory#

Compare territories by density rather than total count: 415.5 businesses per 1,000 residents in Paris, 78.2 in Aisne (département table). Keep in mind that headquarters may differ from the place of business.

Track a changing market#

The market changes quickly: the registry records 1,153,283 business formations and 920,415 closures in 2025. Date your research and update it. For a narrower market, see the list of markets in the sector section.

How do you build a business prospect list?#

A useful list does not start with registry entries. It starts with the target for your offering, then combines legal form, size, sector, and geography. For the general method, see building a business prospect list. Four points determine its quality.

1. Start with active businesses rather than registrations. More than one in three registered businesses has no activity (see how the count narrows from registrations to active businesses): a list drawn solely from the registry sends mail to companies that no longer operate. The Sirene database is a starting point rather than a ready-to-use prospect list.
2. Know whom you are speaking to. For an entrepreneur individuel, it is the owner. For a corporate group, it is headquarters rather than each company.
3. Count locations. 579,608 businesses have at least two active locations. Each row in the list should say whether you are targeting the business or the location.
4. Refresh the list. The registry records 1,153,283 business formations in 2025: a year-old list misses some openings.

Frequently asked questions#

How many SMEs are there in France?#

Insee counts 174,614 SMEs excluding microenterprises in 2023. Under Insee's definition, microenterprises (4,995,894) are also SMEs. SMEs excluding microenterprises account for 29% of all employees.

How many very small businesses and microenterprises are there in France?#

There were 4,995,894 microenterprises in 2023, or 96.5% of the 5,178,283 businesses within scope. Within the narrower scope of predominantly market sectors, 1.6 million use micro-entrepreneur status.

How many ETI and large companies are there in France?#

There were 7,442 ETI and 333 large companies in 2023. In the registry, 78,224 legal units are classified as part of an ETI and 31,986 as part of a large company, because a corporate group contains several companies.

How many micro-entrepreneurs are there in France?#

At the end of 2025, Urssaf counts 3.031 million micro-entrepreneur accounts, including 1.66 million economically active accounts: they reported positive revenue in the fourth quarter. Insee, which counts over the full year, finds 1.9 million economically active micro-entrepreneurs in 2023. The two counts differ in their time period and criterion.

Why 5.2, 5.8, 9.8, or 16.7 million businesses?#

Because each figure counts something different. 5.2 million: businesses under Insee's definition, excluding agriculture and finance, in 2023. 5.8 million: economically active businesses in 2023, including finance. 9.8 million: registered businesses within Insee's scope in 2026. 16.7 million: all legal units without a recorded closure in the registry, including associations and SCI.

How many employer businesses are there in France?#

In the registry, 1,590,175 businesses have at least one location with employer status (16.3% of registered businesses). Insee counted 1.4 million employer businesses in 2022.

Which region has the most businesses?#

Île-de-France, with 2,306,516 headquarters (25.2% of headquarters with a known location) and 185.1 businesses per 1,000 residents. Paris alone has 874,033 headquarters.

How many businesses are created each year?#

There were 1,165,800 in 2025 according to Insee, including 758,600 micro-entrepreneurs. From the fourth quarter of 2025 through the third quarter of 2026, Insee counts 1,278,600.

Method#

Scalon's figures come from Insee's Sirene registry as of September 24, 2026, and Scalon's data graph, which links each location to its registry entry and public business listings (reviewed on November 6, 2026). We count legal units within Insee's scope: market-sector, productive, nonagricultural, including overseas territories. Our estimate of 6,093,000 active businesses uses the ratio of Insee's active count to our registered-business count on the same date in 2024, calculated by Scalon and applied to 2026 registrations. Scalon reviewed a sample of businesses (see the review section).

Method details and limitations

Unit counted. The unit is the legal unit: a company or entrepreneur individuel identified by its SIREN number. Insee calls a "business" the smallest combination of legal units that makes decisions independently; it therefore counts fewer businesses than legal units (5,178,283 businesses for 5,530,439 legal units in 2023). Our "registered business" is a legal unit, as in Insee's publications on active businesses (Insee Première n° 2097).

Insee's scope and rule. Starting with the 16,662,023 legal units without a recorded closure as of September 24, 2026, we remove the groups Insee excludes, plus units that cannot be classified (activity not reported or listed under an old classification), excluded consistently from 2022 through 2026: agriculture (840,890), foreign units (262,187), government bodies (93,508), associations and groups governed by private law (1,468,810), real estate rental (3,358,942), activity not reported or listed under an old classification (877,980). This leaves 9,759,706 businesses within scope. The legal category and activity used are the registry's current values, also applied to past years.

2022 cross-check. Reconstructed from the registry's state at the end of 2022, our scope contains 8,849,864 registered businesses; Insee reports 8.9 million (a 0.6% difference).

Rates and alternative calculations. The rate is the ratio, calculated by Scalon, of Insee's economically active businesses in a given year to our registered businesses within scope as of September 24 of the same year, the registry date used for 2026: 63.0% in 2022, 62.0% in 2023, 62.4% in 2024. As of December 31, just after December's batch removals, it would be higher (64.5% in 2024): that is why we compare the same date each year. Central estimate: the 2024 rate excluding real estate (60.4%, based on 9,308,009 registered businesses outside real estate) applied to the 9,482,056 registered businesses outside real estate in 2026, plus Insee's 364,947 active real estate businesses in 2024 (table DEN T3), carried over unchanged because Insee includes real estate rental units that our scope excludes. Alternatives: overall 2024 rate, 6,092,500; 2023 rates by legal form (54.7% of entrepreneurs individuels, 73.2% of companies), 6,075,700; average rate from 2022 through 2024, 6,097,600; extension of Insee's 2022–2024 trend (+4.1% per year), 6,488,100; same calculation as of December 31, 6,295,200. The maximum difference from the central estimate is 6.5%. Insee does not publish the number of registered businesses within its scope after 2022: these rates rely on our reconstruction of the registry.

Locations. The 10,291,792 locations are those marked active in the registry for businesses within scope. A location marked active may actually be closed without the registry having recorded it.

Public listings. Locations within scope are matched to public business listings by their SIRET number; the review date is November 6, 2026. A listing showing the business as open does not prove that the business is active.

Published financial statements. These come from the financial ratios file of INPI (France's industrial property office), dated September 25, 2026: each SIREN number counted once, latest published fiscal year, fiscal years ending in 2024 or later, positive revenue; statements with zero revenue or confidential statements are excluded. This dataset favors companies that publish financial statements, which are larger than average.

Review. 100 businesses randomly selected from registered businesses within scope, reviewed twice independently, with agreement on 88; the first review is performed by an OpenAI language model (Codex) using only the evidence file, the second by Claude (Anthropic) using the file and public web pages; Scalon resolves disagreements based on evidence (details in the dedicated section).

Breakdown of active businesses. Active estimates by legal form, sector, and region apply the active shares calculated by Scalon from Insee's figures by legal form (2023), treat businesses with no active location as inactive, then scale the results to the total of 6,093,000; they assume that, for a given legal form, the active share is the same everywhere, and distribute Insee's active real estate businesses across all rows.

Geography. Geography is based on the headquarters département in the registry, with counts divided by Insee's official population figures. Headquarters is not always the place of business; 589,460 businesses have no known headquarters location.

Other registry snapshots. On November 1, 2026, the registry contains 16,833,577 active legal units, the figure used in our article on the Sirene database. We do not compare it with our 16,662,023 from September 24: the dates differ.

Rounding. Shares are calculated from the counts shown and rounded to one decimal place; they do not always add up to exactly 100%.

Limitations. Current legal category and activity values are applied to past years. Headquarters is not the place of business. The 2024 activity rate is applied to 2026: if the active share of registered businesses changes, the estimate changes in the same direction. The public figures cited are those of Insee, Urssaf, and Banque de France on the dates shown.

Key takeaways#

• France has 6,093,000 active businesses in 2026 (Scalon estimate), compared with 9,759,706 registered within Insee's scope.
• More than one in three registered businesses has no actual activity; a review of 100 randomly selected registered businesses finds that about one in nine has already closed and more than one in two leaves no public trace.
• 59.3% of registered businesses are entrepreneurs individuels and 86.7% have no reported employees: most sales involve dealing with the owner.
• 579,608 businesses have at least two active locations: for a network, find the headquarters that makes decisions.
• Insee's figures (5.2 and 5.8 million in 2023) are not wrong: they cover a different scope and year. Always date the figure you cite.

Cite this study#

The full citation, including counts

Scalon Observatory, "Number of Businesses in France: 6,093,000 in 2026," November 6, 2026: 6,093,000 active businesses in France (estimate); 9,759,706 registered businesses within Insee's scope in the Sirene registry of September 24, 2026; 16,662,023 legal units without a recorded closure; 1,590,175 employer businesses; 1,355,977 registered businesses (13.9%) have a public business listing. https://scalon.fr/en/observatory/number-of-businesses-in-france

Sources#

• Le tissu productif français par catégorie d'entreprises en 2023, Insee Focus n° 372, 10 décembre 2025
• Les entreprises économiquement actives en 2023, Insee Première n° 2097, 8 avril 2026
• Combien d'entreprises sont réellement actives en France ? Insee Références, janvier 2026
• Combien d'entreprises sont actives en France ? Blog de l'Insee, 3 octobre 2025
• Dossier complet France, tableau DEN T3, unités légales économiquement actives en 2024, Insee, août 2026
• Stocks d'unités légales et d'établissements économiquement actifs de 2014 à 2024, Insee, juillet 2026
• Les créations d'entreprises en 2025, Insee Première n° 2092, 28 janvier 2026
• Créations d'entreprises de juillet à septembre 2026, Insee Informations rapides n° 249, 16 octobre 2026
• Défaillances d'entreprises, septembre 2026, Banque de France
• Les auto-entrepreneurs fin décembre 2025, Stat'UR n° 419, Urssaf, juillet 2026
• Décret n° 2008-1354 du 18 décembre 2008 relatif aux critères permettant de déterminer la catégorie d'appartenance d'une entreprise, Légifrance
• Microentreprise, définition de l'Insee
• Sirene registry (Insee snapshot of September 24, 2026), published financial statements (INPI ratios file of September 25, 2026), and public business listings (Scalon data graph, reviewed on November 6, 2026).