The birth rate of enterprises in Turkey stood at 13% in 2019, down from 13.4% in 2018, the country’s statistical body announced Tuesday.

The employment share of enterprises born in 2019 was 4.6%, according to the Entrepreneurship and Business Demography 2017-2019 report prepared by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

"The highest birth rate for enterprises by sectors was in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector with 36.6%, for 2019," it said.

This sector was followed by accommodation and food service activities with 13.4% and by manufacturing with 11.3%, respectively.

TurkStat’s entrepreneurship report covers the period between 2017 and 2019. The institute said the one-year survival rate of the enterprises born in 2017 was 80.2%, and the two-year survival rate was 64.1%.

According to TurkStat, enterprises with average annualized growth greater than 10% per annum, over a three year period are considered as high-growth enterprises. Growth can be measured by the number of employees or by turnover. High growth enterprises up to five years old are called gazelles.

"The rate of high growth enterprises by turnover was 18.3% in 2019 and the rate of gazelles was 2.7%," it said.

In 2019, 28.7% of high growth enterprises by employment were in the manufacturing sector, 20.7% of them were in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector and 11.7% of them were construction.

In the same year, 30.2% of high growth enterprises by turnover were in the manufacturing sector, 22.1% of them were in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector and 12.4% of them were in construction.

Some 25.8% of gazelles by employment were in the manufacturing sector, 14.8% of them were in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector and 14.6% of them were construction.

In 2019, 25.2% of gazelles by turnover were in the manufacturing sector, 19.2% of them were in construction and 14.8% of them were in the wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector.

"Employment and turnover shares of high growth enterprises by employment were 15.6% and 15.2% respectively in 2019," the institute said.

It noted that export, import, employment and turnover shares of high growth enterprises by turnover were 29.9%, 26.3%, 18.7% and 27.6% respectively in 2019.

The data also showed that the death rate of enterprises in 2016 was 11.2% while it increased to 12.2% in 2017, while the employment share of enterprises that died in 2017 was 4.2%.

The highest death rate of enterprises by sectors in 2017 was in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector at 36.5%. Accommodation and food service activities followed with 13.1% and transportation and storage with 12.3%.