Growing political and academic interest in entrepreneurship and business demography, and particularly the
role and value of new businesses in national economies, is prompting various research projects on these
topics. One of the main issues faced by researchers and policy makers is the current lack of international
comparability of data on business start-up rates, which are often seen as key indicators of entrepreneurship
and economic dynamism. This paper investigates this issue and concludes that current estimates are not
typically comparable, for a number of reasons, which are presented in the form of a typology. On a more
positive note however the paper notes that the basic data sources required to improve comparability exist
and that significant progress can be made in this area in the short to medium term by encouraging the
harmonisation of concepts.
