The aim of this study is to analyse the variations and changes in business demography and macroeconomic features for 28 European countries in 2012 and 29 European countries in 2016 as well as the relations among these features based on the following variables: enterprises birth rates, enterprises death rates, the level of GDP per capita and the unemployment rate. Using the hierarchical cluster analysis approach, the second aim of this research is to form and compare the clusters of European countries with similar characteristics according to these variables for both years. The descriptive statistics results show that a relatively high heterogeneity of European countries relative to the observed variables was present in both years, but the change in variables averages suggests an overall improvement of economic and business demography features in 2016. The correlation analysis revealed that the death rate of enterprises had a statistically significant negative correlation with GDP per capita in both years and a significant positive correlation with the unemployment rate and with the birth rate of enterprises only in 2012. The hierarchical cluster analysis resulted in seven clusters in each observed year. The comparison of clustering solutions for 2012 and 2016 detected the European countries for which the movement between clusters could be seen as a deterioration and those for which it can be seen as an improvement in some or all of the observed variables. These results have important implications for public policies aimed at reducing death of enterprises and unemployment.

KEY WORDS
business demography statistics, correlation, European countries, hierarchical clustering method

CLASSIFICATION

JEL:

C38, M20