Statistics on business demography include data on births of enterprises, on their survival, on deaths of enterprises, on the population of active enterprises, and on the corresponding employment effects. The population is formed by all enterprises (with or without employees). Birth rates, death rates and (five-year) survival rates of enterprises are important indicators for the development of an economy and employment, as new enterprises in particular stimulate the economy and create new jobs.
The legal basis is the regulation on European business statistics (EBS) at European level and the business demography statistics regulation (Unternehmensdemografiestatistik-Verordnung) at national level. The main data sources are the business registers of Statistics Austria (Business Register for Administrative Purposes and Statistical Business Register) as well as tax data, employer and employee data from the Federation of Social Insurances, and data from the Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Register.