Time required to start a business (days) - Country Ranking - Europe

Definition: Time required to start a business is the number of calendar days needed to complete the procedures to legally operate a business. If a procedure can be speeded up at additional cost, the fastest procedure, independent of cost, is chosen.

Source: World Bank, Doing Business project (http://www.doingbusiness.org/).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Bosnia and Herzegovina 80.00 2019
2 Liechtenstein 46.00 2019
3 Poland 37.00 2019
4 Czech Republic 24.50 2019
5 Bulgaria 23.00 2019
6 Slovak Republic 21.50 2019
7 Austria 21.00 2019
8 Malta 20.50 2019
9 Romania 20.00 2019
10 Croatia 19.50 2019
11 Luxembourg 16.50 2019
12 North Macedonia 15.00 2019
13 Finland 13.00 2019
14 Spain 12.50 2019
15 Montenegro 12.00 2019
16 San Marino 11.50 2019
16 Iceland 11.50 2019
18 Italy 11.00 2019
18 Ireland 11.00 2019
20 Switzerland 10.00 2019
21 Belarus 8.50 2019
22 Germany 8.00 2019
22 Slovenia 8.00 2019
24 Sweden 7.50 2019
25 Turkey 7.00 2019
25 Serbia 7.00 2019
25 Hungary 7.00 2019
28 Portugal 6.50 2019
28 Ukraine 6.50 2019
30 Cyprus 6.00 2019
31 Latvia 5.50 2019
31 Lithuania 5.50 2019
33 Belgium 5.00 2019
34 Albania 4.50 2019
34 United Kingdom 4.50 2019
36 Greece 4.00 2019
36 France 4.00 2019
36 Moldova 4.00 2019
36 Norway 4.00 2019
40 Netherlands 3.50 2019
40 Denmark 3.50 2019
40 Estonia 3.50 2019

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Development Relevance: The economic health of a country is measured not only in macroeconomic terms but also by other factors that shape daily economic activity such as laws, regulations, and institutional arrangements. The data measure business regulation, gauge regulatory outcomes, and measure the extent of legal protection of property, the flexibility of employment regulation, and the tax burden on businesses. The fundamental premise of this data is that economic activity requires good rules and regulations that are efficient, accessible to all who need to use them, and simple to implement. Thus sometimes there is more emphasis on more regulation, such as stricter disclosure requirements in related-party transactions, and other times emphasis is on for simplified regulations, such as a one-stop shop for completing business startup formalities. Entrepreneurs may not be aware of all required procedures or may avoid legally required procedures altogether. But where regulation is particularly onerous, levels of informality are higher, which comes at a cost: firms in the informal sector usually grow more slowly, have less access to credit, and employ fewer workers - and those workers remain outside the protections of labor law. The indicator can help policymakers understand the business environment in a country and - along with information from other sources such as the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys - provide insights into potential areas of reform.

Limitations and Exceptions: The Doing Business methodology has limitations that should be considered when interpreting the data. First, the data collected refer to businesses in the economy's largest city and may not represent regulations in other locations of the economy. To address this limitation, subnational indicators are being collected for selected economies. These subnational studies point to significant differences in the speed of reform and the ease of doing business across cities in the same economy. Second, the data often focus on a specific business form - generally a limited liability company of a specified size - and may not represent regulation for other types of businesses such as sole proprietorships. Third, transactions described in a standardized business case refer to a specific set of issues and may not represent the full set of issues a business encounters. Fourth, the time measures involve an element of judgment by the expert respondents. When sources indicate different estimates, the Doing Business time indicators represent the median values of several responses given under the assumptions of the standardized case. Fifth, the methodology assumes that a business has full information on what is required and does not waste time when completing procedures.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Data are collected by the World Bank with a standardized survey that uses a simple business case to ensure comparability across economies and over time - with assumptions about the legal form of the business, its size, its location, and nature of its operation. Surveys are administered through more than 9,000 local experts, including lawyers, business consultants, accountants, freight forwarders, government officials, and other professionals who routinely administer or advise on legal and regulatory requirements. Entrepreneurs around the world face a range of challenges. One of them is inefficient regulation. The indicator measures the procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital required for a small or medium-size limited liability company to start up and formally operate. The Doing Business project of the World Bank encompasses two types of data: data from readings of laws and regulations and data on time and motion indicators that measure efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal. Within the time and motion indicators cost estimates are recorded from official fee schedules where applicable. The data from surveys are subjected to numerous tests for robustness, which lead to revision or expansion of the information collected.

Aggregation method: Unweighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Data are presented for the survey year instead of publication year.