How Many New Companies Are Registered in Estonia Each Month?

Estonia is one of the easiest places in Europe to start a company, and the registration statistics confirm it. More than two thousand new businesses join the Commercial Register every month. On this page, we track new company registrations in Estonia month by month. You can see how many companies are founded, which legal forms they take and where they are based. We also show how many companies the register holds in total, including those in liquidation or bankruptcy. The figures are updated on the 10th of every month.

Latest Company Registration Figures: September 2026

The table below sums up company formation in Estonia for September and for the year so far.

September was the second-busiest month of the year for new companies in Estonia, with 2,335 new OÜs set up. That is 13% more than in August and only 13 short of the March peak. As usual, registrations picked up after the quieter summer months.

New Companies by Month in 2026

Here is how many companies were set up in Estonia each month this year, together with a running total of new OÜs.

New Registrations by Legal Form

The private limited company (osaühing, OÜ) is by far the most popular choice. Almost nine out of ten new registrations are OÜs. It suits most small and medium-sized businesses, protects the owners’ personal assets and can be set up and managed entirely online.

Where New Companies Are Registered

Most newly founded companies have their registered address in Harju County, and almost six out of ten are based in Tallinn. Tartu County, home to Estonia’s second-largest city, comes a distant second. This table counts only companies founded this year. For all companies in the register, see our breakdown of Estonian companies by county and city.

New OÜs by county, January–September 2026:

Companies on the Estonian Commercial Register Today

The tables above count new companies. This one shows the whole register on a single day: how many companies exist and how many are winding down. It is a snapshot rather than a monthly or yearly total, because companies enter and leave liquidation and bankruptcy throughout the year.

Companies in the register on 7 October 2026:

Around 2.6% of all OÜs are in liquidation and 0.2% are in bankruptcy proceedings. Most liquidations are voluntary. The owners decide they no longer need the company, settle its debts and close it down properly. Bankruptcy is a different situation, where the company cannot pay its creditors.

“Registered” means the company is in the register and is not being liquidated or declared bankrupt. It does not show whether the company is actually trading: many registered companies are dormant.

Company Formation Trends So Far This Year

A few patterns stand out among the 19,367 OÜs founded in Estonia between January and September 2026. This section is refreshed every quarter.

• Monday is the busiest day. On Mondays, the register added 28% of all new OÜs, compared with 16–19% on each of the other weekdays. Applications submitted at the weekend are processed on Monday, which is why only 15 companies were registered on a Saturday or Sunday.
• The record day was Monday 4 May. On that day, 182 new OÜs were registered. Another peak came on 25 June, the first working day after Midsummer, with 167.
• “Tech” is the most popular word in new company names. It appears in 428 new company names, followed by “Holding” (312), “Group” (246), “Consult” (228) and “Digital” (189).
• Almost a third of new companies are already VAT-registered. By 7 October, 31% of the OÜs registered this year had an Estonian VAT number. Companies that expect to trade with VAT-registered businesses across the EU often apply for one soon after incorporation.

How We Count New Company Registrations

The figures come from the open data of the Estonian e-Business Register, published by the Centre of Registers and Information Systems (RIK). A company is counted as new in the month in which it was first entered in the register. We take a snapshot of the data in the first week of each month and record the previous month’s figures. The current figures are based on the snapshot of 7 October 2026. Recorded monthly figures are not revised later, even if a company is deleted from the register afterwards.

The headline figure covers private limited companies (OÜ) only. Sole proprietors, non-profit associations, apartment associations and other legal forms are shown separately. This keeps entities that are not companies in the everyday sense from inflating the number of new businesses. For the same reason, our totals differ from those in our breakdown by county and city. That study counts commercial companies of all forms (OÜ, AS, partnerships and cooperatives) but leaves out non-profits, apartment associations and sole proprietors.

The register totals, including liquidations and bankruptcies, show each company’s status on the snapshot date. We replace them with fresh figures every month. Companies that have already been deleted from the register are not included in any of the tables.

Start Your Own Company in Estonia

Setting up a company in Estonia always involves the same basic steps. You choose a name, prepare the articles of association and arrange an Estonian legal address. If the management board is based abroad, you also need a contact person in Estonia. If you are planning to start one, our team can register your Estonian company for you and take care of the paperwork from start to finish. With an e-Residency card, the whole process can be completed online, without travelling to Estonia.

We can also provide a legal address for your company. If you want your mail received, scanned and handled for you, we offer a full virtual office in Tallinn.

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