Stats on COVID-19’s impact on business registrations

Summary

Company and business name registrations increased slightly in the first nine months of 2020 compared to 2019.
Guidance and support are available for companies and small business owners impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There has also been a change to the number of companies entering external administration and voluntary deregistration.

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New company registrations

In the first nine months of 2020, a total of 176,592 companies were registered, a slight increase compared to the first nine months of 2019 being 172,686.

New company registrations were up 6% for January and February, but down from March to May. The largest drop was in April with 20% - the lowest monthly volume since January 2013.

Volumes were 11% higher compared to the same period in 2019.

New company registr- ations	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
2019	14,605	17,404	19,087	16,625	20,682	24,802	21,047	19,573	18,861
2020	15,064	18,711	18,357	13,358	17,752	26,804	24,017	20,673	21,856
Change	3%	8%	-4%	-20%	-14%	8%	14%	6%	16%

Business names

In the first nine months of 2020, a total of 341,229 business names were registered. This is an increase when compared to registrations in the first nine months of 2019, being 287,232.

New business name registrations were down 4% for the January to March period. Volumes grew quickly with significant increases from April to September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Business name registr- ations	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
2019	30,462	32,294	32,625	28,262	32,737	30,112	36,024	33,309	31,407
2020	29,225	32,276	29,797	31,249	39,766	43,088	48,128	45,086	42,614
Change	-4%	0%	-9%	11%	22%	43%	34%	35%	36%

External administration

In the first nine months of 2020, 3,828 companies entered external administration. This is a decrease compared to the same period in 2019 where 6,221 companies entered external administration.

Companies entering external administration for the first time increased 6% in February. From March this continued to decrease by larger rates, with September dropping 66%.

External administr-ation	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
2019	470	629	718	615	772	708	846	778	685
2020	397	667	683	410	429	364	373	275	230*
Change	-16%	6%	-5%	-33%	-44%	-49%	-56%	-65%	-66%*

*Figures are provisional and subject to revision given time lag in lodgements of appointment by registered liquidators

Voluntary deregistration

In the first nine months of 2020, a total of 66,583 companies lodged to voluntarily deregister. This was a decrease when compared to the same period in 2019 where 67,580 companies lodged to voluntarily deregister.

From January to April, each month increased in applications to voluntarily deregister a company. During May to September, there was an overall decrease of 5%.

Applications to deregister*	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
2019	5,425	6,254	6,996	6,393	7,858	8,515	9,445	8,718	7,976
2020	5,963	6,587	7,005	6,477	6,968	8,674	9,154	7,950	7,805
Change	10%	5%	0%	1%	-11%	2%	-3%	-9%	-2%

*Volumes have been amended from article published on 17 July 2020 as a result of additional validation

More information

Advice and support are available if your company or small business has been affected by a downturn in business due to COVID-19. Visit the pages below for more information.

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ASIC is Australia’s corporate, markets and financial services regulator.