According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) In 2018/2019, the start-up rate in Germany changed little compared to previous years.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, published for 20 years, analyzes the global startup landscape. Up to 70 countries publish the results of their evaluations of national startup activities and the prevailing framework conditions each year. In Germany, the Institute for Economic and Cultural Geography Leibniz University Hannover and the RKW Competence Center responsible for the analysis. For this year's GEM, 150,000 people from 49 countries were surveyed worldwide, including 4,248 Germans. 2,043 startup experts also had their say, 53 of whom were from Germany. You can find the full report here. here download.
Developments in the German startup scene
The German start-up rate is currently 4.97 percent, similarly low to that of France, Italy, and Poland. In terms of the percentage of technology-intensive start-ups, Germany performs solidly at 9.1 percent. By comparison, the start-up rate in the USA is 5.2 percent. Another positive development can be seen in the declining fear of starting a business among respondents. Here, the percentage of people with reservations fell from 42 percent to 38 percent compared to the previous year. The prospects for starting a business are also being assessed increasingly more positively. In 2010, fewer than 30 percent of respondents rated the prospects for starting a business as promising, but in 2018, this figure had risen to 42 percent. A change in the age structure of German founders has also been observed. They are becoming younger and younger. While the highest start-up rate in 1999 was among 35-44-year-olds, it now lies among 25-34-year-olds.
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2018/2019: Germany performs moderately
Despite these positive developments, Germany's performance is mediocre by international comparison. This is due not only to the country's low unemployment rate, but also to the relatively high average wage and the large number of medium-sized companies and large, established corporations. These attract employers with secure, well-paid jobs. According to the GEM, Germany's strengths as a business location lie primarily in its government-funded entrepreneurship programs.
