Indicators · Business vitality · data for 2024 (1445–1446 AH) · published by GASTAT 31 December 2025 (11 Rajab 1447 AH)

Business vitality by activity: how many establishments opened and how many closed?

For each of 84 activities (17 main sections and 67 sub-activities): new establishments minus closed ones in a year, divided by active establishments. We then set it next to the growth in people’s card spending on the same activity, where the two classifications can be linked.

What this means for your decision: high net growth means new establishments in the activity far outnumber closed ones, so new competitors are entering faster. Compare it with the growth in people’s spending on the same activity: establishments growing faster than spending means spending is shared among more establishments.

Main sections: net growth of establishments in 2024

(New − closed) ÷ active, for each section of the industrial classification. Ranked from the highest.

• Transportation and storage45.8%
• Construction32.8%
• Manufacturing21.2%
• Mining and quarrying21.0%
• Information and communication20.3%
• Financial and insurance18.2%
• Water supply; sewerage activities15.5%
• Education14.2%
• Human health and social work13.3%
• Professional activities12.7%
• Electricity, gas supply12.6%
• Real estate activities12.0%
• Arts, entertainment and recreation10.4%
• Other service9.8%
• Accommodation and food service9.5%
• Administrative and support service9.1%
• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles7.0%

Source: GASTAT — Business Demography statistics 2024 (1445–1446 AH), published 31 December 2025 (11 Rajab 1447 AH). “Continuation rate” = 100 minus the closure rate. Activity names follow GASTAT’s English labels.

Establishments against people’s spending

Growth in people’s card spending in 2024 (the weeks starting in the year against the same weeks a year earlier), next to the net growth of establishments in the matching activity.

Why each link has its degree

• Food and beverage service activities: SAMA’s “restaurants and cafés” are GASTAT’s food and beverage service activities.
• Accommodation: SAMA’s “hotels” are GASTAT’s accommodation activity.
• Education: Education fees paid by card correspond to education establishments.
• Human health activities: SAMA’s “health” includes pharmacies and care products, which GASTAT classes as retail trade, not human health.
• Telecommunications: SAMA’s “telecommunications” may include shops selling SIM cards and devices, which GASTAT classes as retail.
• Arts, entertainment and recreation: SAMA’s “recreation and culture” includes books and stationery, which GASTAT classes as retail.
• Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles: The sum of SAMA’s goods activities (groceries, clothing, electronics, furniture, jewellery, fuel, building materials) against all retail trade at GASTAT.

The link is approximate: there is no official published crosswalk between GASTAT’s activity classification (the international industrial classification ISIC4) and SAMA’s point-of-sale classification. We built a small, explicit table for the clear activities only, and published it in full: crosswalk_isic_sama.csv. The other activities (manufacturing, construction, transport…) have no clear spending counterpart, so we did not link them.

What this means for your decision: in restaurants and cafés the net number of establishments grew 9.3% while spending on them grew +7.6%; when establishments grow faster than spending, each establishment’s share of spending becomes smaller on average.

How we calculate

• Net growth: (new establishments − closed establishments) ÷ active establishments × 100. It is the same “net turnover rate” that GASTAT publishes, and we check automatically that our calculation matches it for every activity.
• Continuation rate: 100 minus the closure rate (closed ÷ active). GASTAT does not publish a “survival rate” for cohorts of new establishments over the years, so this is the closest available ratio, and it is not a survival rate.
• Spending growth: total card spending at points of sale in Saudi Arabia on the activity in the 52 weeks that began in 2024, divided by the same weeks 364 days earlier, using SAMA’s pre-2024 classification (the same classification in both years).
• Annual: GASTAT publishes business demography once a year (the 2024 release came out the following December).

What the indicator does not measure

• It does not measure establishments’ profit or size: a small establishment and a large company each count as one.
• Saudi Arabia as a whole only: GASTAT does not publish business demography by region or city.
• It is not the survival rate of new establishments: we do not know how many of the establishments opened in a given year remained after two or three years; this is not published.
• Card spending only: it excludes cash, transfers and business-to-business purchases, and measures people’s spending, not establishments’ revenue.
• The link between the two classifications is approximate: a SAMA activity may include shops that the statistics place in another activity (such as pharmacies under “health”).
• It does not judge any activity: net growth describes what happened in a year; it is not an estimate of what will happen, nor a call to enter or leave an activity.

Source and download

Indicator file for all activities: indicator_business_vitality.csv · crosswalk: crosswalk_isic_sama.csv · Establishments and business data