In 2022, the registration of private limited companies decreased by 5.8% from the previous year, with a total of 3,033 new registrations of private limited companies during the year. There was a 28% decrease in new registrations between years in Financial and insurance activities, from 454 to 326. Registrations also decreased from 374 to 315 between years in Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, and from 127 to 69 in Manufacturing (a decrease of 46%). There was a 9% increase in new registrations in Construction, or to 562 from 516 in 2021.
Looking at the last decade, there was a year-on-year increase in new registrations of private limited companies until 2016, when they were 2,666. They then decreased year by year until 2019 when they were 2,201, and then increased again in the following two years, reaching a peak of 3,220 in 2021.
Looking at the distribution of new registrations between regions in 2022, there was a decrease in new registrations in the Capital region from 2,446 in 2021 to 2,204 in 2022, or by 9.9%. For other regions combined, registrations were 7.6% higher than the previous year, or 837 compared with 778.
New registrations of private limited companies were 206 in December 2022, or 42 fewer than in December of the previous year. The majority of new registrations in December were in Construction, or 37, an increase from 30 in December 2021. Meanwhile, there was a decrease from 46 to 21 in Real estate activities.
Statistics Iceland publishes monthly figures on the number of new registrations, and also summarizes the annual number of enterprises and organisations registered by the Iceland Revenue and Customs office. At the end of 2022, there were 79,890 enterprises and organisations in the IRC company register.