In 2024, of the 1,593,415 active enterprises in Portugal, 246,589 were born in that year, reflecting a slight decrease of 0.1% compared to the previous year (+6.3% in 2023). In the same year, the number of deaths is estimated to have reached 186,707 enterprises (-1.7%), registering a lower growth rate than births. The proportion of enterprises surviving 1 year after birth stood at 73.8% (+0.2 p.p. compared to 2023) and those surviving 3 years after birth accounted for 47.7% (- 1.2 p.p. compared to the previous year).

In 2024, new companies employed 292,856 people (+1.4%) and generated 4,681 million euros in turnover (-0.2%). In net terms, the difference between births and deaths, there was a positive balance in the number of companies, persons employed and turnover.

From the 532,174 non-financial companies in activity in 2024, 44,468 had started activity in that year, -2.9% compared to the previous year, corresponding to a birth rate of 8.4% (-0.5 p.p. compared to 2023). The number of deaths of non-financial companies is estimated to have been 15,133, 44.4% less than in 2023, corresponding to a mortality rate of 2.8% (-2.5 p.p. compared to the previous year).

In 2024 there were 7,801 high-growth companies, 12.3% more than in the previous year, representing 13.5% of all non-financial companies with 10 or more employees, 21.7% of persons employed, 16.1% of turnover and 20.3% of gross value added (GVA).

The number of high-growth young non-financial companies, known as gazelles, increased by 0.8% in 2024 (8.3% in 2023), totalling 670 companies. The gazelles as a whole were responsible for a GVA of 1,267 million euros, 42.0 million euros less than the previous year, corresponding to 1.1% of all non-financial companies with 10 or more employees.

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