How many companies are still going after five years?
For every company founded since 2010: is it still going, and if not, did it go bankrupt, was it dissolved, absorbed or struck off? By region, province or municipality, by legal form and by founding year.
After 1 year
99%
still going · 0.2% bankrupt
After 3 years
92%
still going · 3.7% bankrupt
After 5 years
85%
still going · 6.9% bankrupt
The companies founded in 2017 in Belgium
Share still going and how the others stopped, per year after founding. Measured on 32,097 companies.
To quote
- Of the companies founded in 2017 in Belgium, 85% are still going after 5 years; 6.9% went bankrupt.
- Of those that stopped within 5 years, 46% went bankrupt and 51% were dissolved or liquidated.
Year by year
| After | Still going | Bankrupt | Dissolved | Merger | Struck off | Other | Uncertain | Measured on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 99% | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.0% | 0% | 0% | 0.2% | 32,097 |
| 2 years | 96% | 1.7% | 1.8% | 0.1% | 0% | 0% | 0.3% | 32,097 |
| 3 years | 92% | 3.7% | 3.5% | 0.2% | 0% | 0% | 0.4% | 32,097 |
| 4 years | 89% | 5.2% | 5.5% | 0.4% | 0% | 0% | 0.4% | 32,097 |
| 5 years | 85% | 6.9% | 7.7% | 0.6% | 0% | 0% | 0.5% | 32,097 |
| 6 years | 81% | 8.6% | 9.7% | 0.7% | 0% | 0% | 0.5% | 32,097 |
| 7 years | 77% | 10% | 12% | 1.0% | 0.0% | 0% | 0.6% | 32,097 |
| 8 years | 73% | 11% | 14% | 1.2% | 0.1% | 0% | 0.7% | 32,097 |
A year counts only once every company of that founding year has reached it (data up to 15 August 2026). Several founding years are combined year by year, on those still going the year before.
By founding year
Still going, for the companies in Belgium.
| Founded in | Number | after 1 year | after 3 years | after 5 years | after 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 49,727 | 99% | |||
| 2023 | 48,964 | 99% | |||
| 2022 | 48,726 | 100% | 94% | ||
| 2021 | 47,862 | 99% | 94% | ||
| 2020 | 41,332 | 100% | 94% | 85% | |
| 2019 | 36,810 | 99% | 94% | 85% | |
| 2018 | 35,306 | 99% | 94% | 86% | |
| 2017 | 32,097 | 99% | 92% | 85% | |
| 2016 | 31,455 | 99% | 92% | 84% | |
| 2015 | 29,263 | 99% | 92% | 83% | 67% |
| 2014 | 28,019 | 99% | 92 to 93% | 82 to 83% | 67% |
| 2013 | 26,209 | 99% | 91 to 92% | 81 to 82% | 66% |
| 2012 | 27,450 | 98 to 99% | 90 to 92% | 82 to 83% | 66 to 67% |
| 2011 | 33,042 | 99% | 91 to 93% | 82 to 84% | 67 to 69% |
| 2010 | 32,792 | 98 to 99% | 92 to 94% | 82 to 84% | 67 to 69% |
An empty cell: that founding year has not reached that anniversary yet.
What these figures do and do not say
- Only companies, non-profits and foundations. They publish their founding and their end in the Belgian Official Gazette. Sole traders do not: those that stopped are invisible to us, so they are not counted.
- Why not a curve from the register alone. The KBO open data shows only companies that are still registered; a company that stopped leaves it. Of the legal entities we know, 375,057 no longer have any registration. A curve from the register would count only survivors and always show 100%.
- So from the founding deed, and from 2010. Every company publishes its founding in the Gazette, whether it survives or not. The list of those publications holds the founding deed of at least 97% of the companies started in any year since 2010, against at most 40% for 2003 to 2009. Checked against survival: of the companies still registered, 99% have their founding deed in the list; of those we saw leave since April 2026, 99%. So the list does not depend on what later happened to the company.
- Which act is the founding. Enterprise numbers are handed out in order. A company's first act counts as its founding when it matches the start dates of the numbers just before and after it. Tested on companies whose start the register knows: 100% of the true foundings recognised, 1.3% of later first acts wrongly accepted.
- How a company stopped. A bankruptcy or judicial dissolution on the date of the judgment, a merger on the date of the deed, a strike-off on its date, and otherwise the last act under the end rubric (dissolution or closure of the liquidation). A company that left the register without such a publication counts as stopped otherwise, with a date between its last sign of life and the day the register lost it. Since 28 September 2026 the bankruptcies of June 1997 to April 2018 carry their judgment date too: the gazette's texts before RegSol have been read (99% of openings found in a sample), so fewer ends of the 2010 to 2017 founding years stay loosely dated.
- Stopping is not failing. A voluntary dissolution can be a planned end, a merger a success. That is why the ways of stopping are kept apart, and only a bankruptcy counts as a bankruptcy.
- No curve by sector. The register keeps a company's activity only while it is registered. Of the 163,745 stopped companies in these tables, 132,557 no longer have a registration, and so no sector. A curve by sector would count mostly survivors, so we show none.
- Place. The municipality of the seat as printed in the company's last act, the same way for survivors and for companies that stopped.
Updated on 29 September 2026 from the Belgian Official Gazette, the KBO and the bankruptcy publications.