More people are setting up businesses in Germany
The number of people who choose to become self-employed is rising: compared to the year before, new businesses increased by 18 percent in 2025.
Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – More and more people in Germany choose to become self-employed: the number of people who set up their own business went up to around 690,000 in 2025, according to a representative survey conducted by the state promotional bank KfW. This corresponds to an increase of almost one fifth (18 percent) compared to the year before (585,000).
The main reason for this boost is a considerable increase in people who are self-employed as a side job: this group of people rose to 483,000 compared to 382,000 in 2024. The share of people setting up sideline businesses therefore reached a record level of 70 percent. Many of the survey participants reported that their aim was to earn some extra money with self-employed activities.
The majority of entrepreneurs is self-employed by choice. Two thirds generally prefer being self-employed to permanent employment. The majority of businesses set up are small: only 24 percent of those who founded a new enterprise in 2025 had employees.
