Companies

Nearly 190,000 German businesses closed in 2025

Sep 7, 2026 Germany

Nearly 190,000 businesses ceased operations in 2025, up by around 10% from the previous year and marking a significant increase for the second consecutive year, according to ZEW and Creditreform

According to the data, only one in eight cases was due to insolvency, with companies with medium or good credit ratings voluntarily ceasing their business activities. The number of closures increased sharply in the hospitality, vehicle manufacturing, and medical practice sectors.

“Uncertain operating conditions, high energy and personnel costs and the skills shortage are now affecting firms across almost all sectors of the economy”, noted Sandra Gottschalk, researcher at ZEW’s Economics of Innovation and Industrial Dynamics Research Unit.

Alongside these difficulties, demographic trends are increasingly weighing in. “More and more companies are closing because their owners are retiring and cannot find a successor, even though these businesses would otherwise be viable”, she added.

Patrik-Ludwig Hantzsch, press spokesperson for the creditors’ protection association Creditreform in Neuss, also emphasised that, although large companies and corporate groups are currently dominating the news, the number of small and medium-sized businesses “quietly disappearing is many times greater”.

The analysis is based on the Mannheim Enterprise Panel, managed by ZEW Mannheim and comprising Creditreform data on over nine million businesses, including micro-enterprises and self-employed individuals. Business closures are tracked using insolvencies, deregistrations, Creditreform research and statistical estimates.

Image Credits: zew.de

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