Proportion of growing rural enterprises

Nearly one third of all enterprises in Finland are located in rural areas. In 2023, there were over 6,000 more rural enterprises than in 2019.

Growth companies that employed at least 10 people at the beginning of the growth period and had a growth rate of at least 10 per cent during the growth period 2020-2023 were around 2,400 companies. About 17 per cent of these growth companies were located in rural areas. For example, industry, construction, trade and transport were major sectors of rural growth companies. According to the definition of the OECD, a growth company is an enterprise which employs at least ten people at the beginning of the growth period and the number of employees increases by more than 20 per cent per year during the next three years.

The indicator represents how growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in rural areas has developed in relation to SMEs in the whole of Finland and aims to analyse how the activities of the Rural Development Programme have affected this development.

Statistics Finland produces information about the number of rural enterprises and growth companies in rural areas by rural area. In the statistics of growth companies produced by Statistics Finland, growth is inspected according to the development of the number of personnel by growth period. A growth period covers four years, i.e. the first year of operations and the next three years.

The indicator will next be updated in spring 2026.