How many companies are created each day in Belgium?

The question comes up often among accountants, sales teams and business journalists: how many companies are created every day in Belgium? The answer is a single figure, but that figure deserves a careful reading. Here is where it comes from, what it really counts, a dated order of magnitude, and where to follow it day by day.

Where does the creation figure come from?

Every active business in Belgium is registered with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (BCE), called KBO in Dutch, kept by the FPS Economy. Every working day, the BCE publishes the new registrations and the changes to the register in its open data. Counting creations therefore means counting the businesses whose start date falls within a given period.

Company Belgium reads these publications every day and gathers them on a public page, the new companies created in Belgium. A business appears there for the 30 days following its legal start date, as long as it stays active in the register.

An order of magnitude, with a date

On 21 October 2026, the page showed 17,786 new companies over the last 30 days. That is on average about 590 creations per calendar day. This figure changes every day: take it as an order of magnitude, not a constant.

On the same day, the breakdown by legal form gave a fairly clear picture:

• 11,869 self-employed people, that is natural persons starting an activity.
• 4,345 private limited companies (SRL/BV), the most common company form.
• Then 574 limited partnerships, 439 non-profit associations, 139 general partnerships and 28 public limited companies.

By sector, consulting and specialised services came first (2,090), ahead of construction (1,131), trade (1,098) and personal services (1,084).

What the figure counts, and what it does not

A creation figure only makes sense if you know what it covers. Three points matter:

1. The date used is the start date

A business is counted at its legal start date, not on the day it appears in the files. Some registrations arrive with a slight delay: the figure for the last few days may therefore still rise as new publications come in.

2. Natural persons are included

A self-employed person who sets up receives an enterprise number. They appear in the list under their own name, just like an SRL/BV. This explains the weight of the self-employed in the total.

3. City totals are smaller than the national total

The city counters use the address of the registered office. But the BCE open data does not publish the address of self-employed people: they count in the national total without appearing in a city. The sum of the cities therefore stays well below the national total.

Where are companies created?

To see the map of creations, Company Belgium publishes a page per region and per municipality:

• Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders for the three regions;
• the Province of Liège or the Province of Antwerp for a view by province;
• cities such as Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, Namur or Charleroi.

On 21 October 2026, the Brussels-Capital Region counted 833 creations with a registered office address over 30 days, Antwerp 336 and Ghent 200. Each city page adds the counters for the day and the last 7 days, and opens archives by month and by year.

Why follow this figure?

The number of creations is not just a statistic. For many professions, each new business is a potential client that, in its first weeks, must choose an accountant, open an account, take out insurance and equip itself.

• Accountants and trust offices: spot the companies in their municipality before they have chosen a firm.
• Brokers and insurers: offer start-up cover at the right time.
• Analysts and journalists: follow the dynamics of a region or a sector, month after month.

Receive the creations in your municipalities every day

Checking the page every morning works, but it is easy to forget. The Company Belgium BCE alert does the work for you: you choose your municipalities (5 on the free plan) and every day, from 11 a.m. by default (the time is adjustable), an email announces the number of new companies, with the most represented municipalities and activities. The full list, with name, BCE number, activity and a link to each record, opens in your free Company Belgium account after signing in with a code sent by email.

Paid plans receive the full list and a PDF directly in the email, and the Pro plan adds the NACE sector filter.

In short

Belgium records several hundred company creations a day: about 590 per calendar day on average over the 30 days before 21 October 2026, most of them self-employed people. The exact figure changes every day; the simplest is to follow it at the source, on the new companies page, or to receive the ones in your municipalities by email.

Frequently asked questions

How many companies are created per day in Belgium?

On 21 October 2026, Company Belgium counted 17,786 new companies over the last 30 days, or about 590 per calendar day on average. The figure changes every day: check the new companies page for the current value.

Are self-employed people counted?

Yes. A natural person who starts an activity receives an enterprise number and appears in the creations, just like a private limited company (SRL/BV) or a non-profit. The self-employed are in fact the majority of creations.

How do I receive the creations in my municipality?

With the free Company Belgium BCE alert: you choose up to 5 municipalities, an email announces the new companies every day and the full list opens in your free account.