Approximately 810,000 firms were established in Korea in 2011, but more than half of them went out of business within two years, while their five-year survival rate stood at about 30 percent.
According to Statistics Korea, the ratio of newly-established companies fell from 17.9 percent to 13.9 percent between 2007 and 2013 and then rose to 15.2 percent last year. In 2014, the number of such firms totaled about 843,000, up 12.6 percent from a year ago. In 2013, a total of 664,000 or so companies went out of business, down 10.4 percent compared to the previous year, and the number of employees working for those companies declined by 8.3 percent to about 970,000.
Only 60.1 percent of companies founded in 2012 remained in business for at least one year, and 47.3 percent of those founded in 2011 succeeded in surviving for two years.
The ratio of Korean firms that have continued to do business for five years since 2011 stood at 29 percent to be exact. The survival rate has been available since 2009, and it has shown a downward movement all the way since then, although it edged up a little bit in 2013.