New Zealand Business Demography Statistics: At February 2026

30 Oct 2026, 12:33 by Stats NZ · SCOOP

30 October 2026

Business demography statistics provide an annual snapshot of the characteristics of New Zealand businesses. The statistics cover economically significant enterprises that produce goods and services in New Zealand.

Key facts

Provisional data showed that at February 2026:

New Zealand had 620,150 enterprises, an increase of 0.2 percent from February 2025; this followed a 0.7 percent increase in the previous February year
the number of paid employees in these enterprises (not an official employment statistic) was 2.4 million, down 0.2 percent from February 2025
these enterprises had 656,980 business locations, an increase of 0.2 percent from February 2025
of the 19 industries, 10 had more enterprises and employees compared with February 2025
of the 16 regions, seven had more business locations than a year earlier, and five had more employees.

The enterprise counts in this series are influenced not only by enterprise births and deaths but also by those enterprises that change their economic significance status between reference years.

Visit our website to read the full information release and to download CSV files:

New Zealand business demography statistics: At February 2026 (https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/new-zealand-business-demography-statistics-at-february-2026/)
CSV files for download (https://www.stats.govt.nz/large-datasets/csv-files-for-download/)

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading