Catalonia’s entrepreneurial activity grows up to 8% and keeps above European average

Catalonia’s entrepreneurial activity (Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity, TEA) ratio continues to grow and has reached at 8.03%, 1.76 points above the Spanish rate (6.19%) and almost two tenths higher than the European (7.86%). This is the main conclusion of the last Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) - Catalonia 2017-2018, a report promoted by the Department of Business and Knowledge and the Diputació de Barcelona and prepared jointly by the Institute of Regional and Metropolitan Studies of Barcelona and the Department of Enterprise of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). GEM is an international project involving 54 countries around the world.

The TEA ratio shows that 8.03% of the Catalan adult population (18 to 64 years old) was involved in start-up entrepreneurial activities, which grew by 1.04% over the previous year. Moreover, consolidated business initiatives (having more than 3 years and a half) represent 9.1% of the adult population of Catalonia.

More specifically, opportunity-driven by entrepreneurship –those who do it do it because they have an idea and know how to materialize it- stands at 4.6%, placing both Catalonia and the demarcation of Barcelona 1.6 points above Spain. With regard to need-driven motivation –those entrepreneurs that do so because they cannot not find employment- has stood at 2%.

The study states that the perception of the environment offering good opportunities continues to increase. Thus, the percentage of people in Catalonia who detect good business opportunities is 37% (growing by seven percentage points compared to the previous year). In the Barcelona the perception of opportunities is still higher (39%).

In this period the participation of enterprising women also increases. In fact, TEAs are 8.9% male and 7.1% female, which places Catalonia above the European average (5.8%) in terms of women-lead entrepreneurship.