Antevo / Switzerland in figures
Swiss companies, estates and family offices in figures.
Every figure these pages publish, in one place: 20 counts and estimates on Swiss companies, estates and family offices. Antevo’s own counts from the registers stand beside the official figures, each with how it was counted. If you quote one, please credit Antevo with a link to this page.
How many names enter the register.
In the twelve months to September 2026, 56,503 new entries were published in the Swiss commercial register.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 56,503 | new entries in the Swiss commercial register, published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from October 2025 to September 2026: companies, sole proprietorships, branches, associations and foundations. |
| 13,178 | new entries from July to September 2026. For scale: in the same quarter, 5,462 national trademark applications were filed in Switzerland, by holders of every kind. |
How it was counted: Antevo count of the new-entry notices (rubric HR01) published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, each notice counted once; as of 18 October 2026. The count covers every legal form, branches included, and follows the publication date, which comes a few days after the entry in the cantonal register. Trademark applications: national applications in the Swiss register (Swissreg, IPI) with a filing date in the same quarter, from our analysis of 16 October 2026. Counts only: no company or holder is named.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#founding-register · The questions behind this figure
How often the holder is not a company.
In our analysis, 37% of trademark applications filed in Switzerland from July to September 2026 named a holder with no company legal form, typically a private person.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 37% | of trademark applications filed in Switzerland from July to September 2026 named a holder with no company legal form, typically a private person: 2,006 of 5,462. For holders with a Swiss address: 42%. |
| 82% | of those filed by Swiss-address holders without a legal form named no representative, such as a trademark attorney, on the register. Where the name carries a legal form: 54%. |
How it was counted: Antevo analysis of national trademark applications in the Swiss register (Swissreg, IPI) with a filing date from 1 July to 30 September 2026, the latest full quarter our copy of the register holds almost completely; as of 16 October 2026. A holder name counts as carrying a legal form when it contains a recognised company or organisation form (AG, GmbH, SA, Sàrl, Sagl, Ltd, cooperative, foundation, association and others). The rule fails safe: a company whose form it does not recognise counts as having none, so the share may run slightly high. Address and representative as recorded by the IPI; the 429 applications without a recorded address are not in the Swiss-address figures. Counts only: no holder is named.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#founding-holder · The questions behind this figure
How many companies take a new name.
In the twelve months to September 2026, 9,577 companies changed the distinctive part of their registered name.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 9,577 | companies changed the distinctive part of their registered name from October 2025 to September 2026: 3,458 AG, 3,590 GmbH, 2,158 sole proprietorships and 371 of other legal forms. |
| 2,224 | of them from July to September 2026, counted by their latest rename notice. |
How it was counted: Antevo count of the change notices in the commercial register (rubric HR02) published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 whose title shows a new company name. Each company is counted once, and only where the distinctive part of the name changed: not just the legal form, the capitalisation or an “in Liquidation” suffix. Branches are excluded. Legal form is read from the name for AG and GmbH and from the register entry for all others. As of 18 October 2026. Counts only: no company is named.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#renaming-register · The questions behind this figure
How many companies close.
In the twelve months to September 2026, 56,375 companies were deleted from the Swiss commercial register or put into liquidation.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 56,375 | companies were deleted from the commercial register or put into liquidation from October 2025 to September 2026, each counted once. |
| 35,042 | deletions published in the SHAB, each company counted once. In a sample of 150 deletion notices, about 9% followed a merger. |
| 22,335 | companies put into liquidation: the register added “in Liquidation” to their name. This covers voluntary liquidations, court-ordered dissolutions and bankruptcies. |
How it was counted: Antevo count of the notices published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026: deletions from the commercial register (rubric HR03), and change notices (rubric HR02) in which the register added “in Liquidation” (or “en liquidation”, “in liquidazione”) to a company’s name. Each company is counted once: a company and the branches carrying its name count as one, and the 1,002 companies with both a liquidation and a deletion notice in the window count once in the total. As of 18 October 2026. Deletions are counted as published in the SHAB; the cantons’ annual reports, compiled by the Federal Office of the Commercial Register, count more events as deletions, so this is the conservative count. The merger share comes from a sample of 150 deletion notices. Counts only: no company is named.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#closing-closing · The questions behind this figure
Bankruptcies, by the official count.
In 2025, 12,485 bankruptcy proceedings were opened against companies in Switzerland, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 12,485 | bankruptcy proceedings were opened against companies in Switzerland in 2025, 61.2% more than in 2024. |
| 2,755 | companies were dissolved in 2025 for defects in their organisation and liquidated under the rules on bankruptcy (OR Art. 731b), counted separately. |
How it was counted: Figures of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), debt collection and bankruptcy statistics 2025, press release of 21 May 2026, from the data of the cantonal debt collection and bankruptcy offices. They are the FSO’s figures, not an Antevo count. The FSO links most of the rise to the change in the debt collection law in force since 1 January 2025, which lets creditors of unpaid public-law claims, such as taxes or social insurance contributions, ask for bankruptcy. It counts dissolutions for defects in the organisation separately, because the companies concerned are not necessarily over-indebted.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#closing-fso · The questions behind this figure
Estates that went to a bankruptcy office.
8,470 estates of people who died passed to a bankruptcy office for liquidation in the 12 months to September 2026; in 7,340 of them, the heirs had refused the inheritance.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 8,470 | estates of people who died passed to a bankruptcy office for liquidation in the 12 months to September 2026. |
| 7,340 | of them were estates the heirs had refused. |
How it was counted: Antevo count of the bankruptcy notices published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SHAB) from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026 that name a deceased debtor: 8,624 notices (5,415 calls to creditors and 3,209 suspensions for lack of assets) for 8,470 distinct estates. An estate with more than one notice is counted once, matched on the bankruptcy office and the debtor’s date of death, date of birth and postcode, without reading names. Every canton must publish these notices in SHAB; the count covers notices that record a date of death, so it is a floor. 7,340 of the estates had been refused by the heirs.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#inheritance-estates · The questions behind this figure
What passes on in a year.
A published estimate puts what was inherited or given as gifts in Switzerland in 2022 at about CHF 88 billion.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 88 bn | Swiss francs inherited or given as gifts in Switzerland in 2022, by the estimate: almost twice what the AHV pays out in a year. |
| 1.4 bn | francs of that would go in cantonal and municipal inheritance and gift taxes, by the same estimate. |
| Half | of all inheritances now go to people of retirement age, the chapter notes. |
How it was counted: Estimate by Marius Brülhart (University of Lausanne) in the chapter “Erbschaftssteuer: Effizient und trotzdem unbeliebt”, Caritas Sozialalmanach 2023 (Caritas-Verlag, Lucerne, January 2023): about CHF 88 billion inherited and given as gifts in Switzerland in 2022. The tax figure extrapolates the CHF 1.23 billion of inheritance and gift taxes paid to cantons and municipalities in 2019, from Federal Finance Administration data, to 2022. These are the author’s published estimates, not an Antevo count.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#inheritance-estate · The questions behind this figure
A federal tax, put to the vote.
On 30 November 2025, 78.28% of voters and every canton rejected a federal tax of 50% on estates and gifts above an allowance of CHF 50 million.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 78.3% | of voters rejected a federal tax of 50% on estates and gifts above CHF 50 million on 30 November 2025. |
| 0 | cantons voted yes. |
How it was counted: Final result of the federal popular vote of 30 November 2025 on the initiative “For a social climate policy – financed fairly through taxation (Initiative for a Future)”: 520,173 yes (21.72%), 1,874,301 no (78.28%), turnout 42.95%; no canton or half-canton voted yes. Federal Chancellery and Federal Statistical Office.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#inheritance-vote · The questions behind this figure
Companies with “family office” in their name.
288 active companies are registered in Switzerland with “family office” in their name.
| Figure | What it counts |
|---|---|
| 288 | companies are registered in Switzerland with “family office” in their name and are active, in 21 of the 26 cantons. |
| 170 | of them have their registered office in the cantons of Zurich (69), Geneva (56) or Zug (45): 59%. |
How it was counted: Antevo count from Zefix open data (the Central Business Name Index of the Federal Commercial Registry Office, opendata.swiss), accessed 17 October 2026: active entries in the commercial register whose registered name contains “family office”, also written “familyoffice” or “office familial”, without those in liquidation, by the canton of the registered office. Every legal form counts. A name says nothing about the business: the count includes offices that serve one family and offices that serve several, and misses family offices whose name does not say so. Counts only: no company is named.
Cite as “Antevo, Switzerland in figures”, antevo.ch/switzerland-in-figures/#family-office-register · The questions behind this figure