Foreword

The collection of entrepreneurship indicators presented in Entrepreneurship at a Glance is the result of the OECD-Eurostat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme (EIP). The programme, started in 2006, was the first attempt to compile and publish international data on entrepreneurship from official government statistical sources. From the outset a key feature in the development of these indicators has been to minimise compilation costs for national statistical offices, which is why the programme focuses attention on exploiting existing sources of data.

Informing policy design through the development of policy-relevant indicators is at the core of the EIP programme, and much attention is paid to responding to information needs. In particular, the global financial crisis highlighted the need for more timely information on the situation of small businesses. To that purpose, Entrepreneurship at a Glance features an opening section on recent trends in entrepreneurship, discussing new data on enterprise creations and exits, bankruptcies and self-employment. In the present edition, the opening section also introduces for the first time findings on expected job creation in the SME sector; they result from a new online business survey designed by Facebook in cooperation with the OECD Statistics Directorate and the World Bank.

This edition was prepared in the Trade and Competitiveness Division of the OECD Statistics Directorate by Frédéric Parrot, Gueram Sargsyan, Liliana Suchodolska, Joseph Winkelmann and Belén Zinni, with input from Diana Doyle. Nadim Ahmad and Mariarosa Lunati provided overall guidance and edited the publication.

Particular thanks go to Eurostat and to experts in National Statistical Offices from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Russian Federation, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States; and to Cornelius Mueller from Invest Europe, and Ted Liu from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association for help and advice on equity capital statistics.