HÀ NỘI — Firms continue to be the main driver of Việt Nam's economic expansion, while the household and individual businesses are entering a period of restructuring marked by changes in business models and employment patterns, according to the 2026 Economic Census released on Monday.

The nationwide census, conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance, recorded nearly 6.3 million active economic entities engaged in production and business, making it the largest economic census ever carried out in Việt Nam.

The total included nearly 876,200 enterprises and cooperatives, almost 5.3 million non-agricultural household businesses, 52,200 religious establishments, about 8,000 cooperative groups and 82,500 administrative agencies, public service units, associations and non-governmental organisations.

NSO Director Nguyễn Thị Hương said that with wider scope, the 2026 census provides a more comprehensive picture of the country's socio-economic landscape.

The survey showed that the business sector remained resilient despite global and domestic economic uncertainties, supported by policies aimed at improving the investment climate and promoting private sector development.

As of the end of 2025, among 1.22 million registered enterprises nationwide, 859,048 were operating and generating business revenue, up 2.4 per cent from 2024 and 25.5 per cent higher than in 2020.

Private enterprises continued to play the key role with 827,500 active firms, up 2.1 per cent from a year earlier and 25.4 per cent from 2020, highlighting the resilience of the domestic private sector as well as efficiency of enterprise support policies.

Foreign-invested enterprises recorded the strongest growth, with 29,800 active companies, up 11.1 per cent from 2024 and 33.9 per cent from 2020.

The NSO said the increase reflected Việt Nam's continued attractiveness as an investment destination amid global supply chain realignment and sustained foreign direct investment inflows.

State-owned enterprises numbered 1,770, up 0.3 per cent from 2024 but down 9.8 per cent from 2020, in line with the Government's programme to restructure and improve the efficiency of State-owned firms.

By sector, services accounted for 612,500 enterprises, or 71.3 per cent of the total. The number of service firms increased 5.8 per cent from the previous year and 31.3 per cent compared with 2020.

The number of enterprises operating in industrial and construction totalled 240,600, down 5.2 per cent from 2024 but still 13.8 per cent higher than in 2020, indicating that the sector had maintained its long-term scale despite a recent slowdown.

Agriculture, forestry and fisheries had 5,989 enterprises, up 0.7 per cent from 2024 but down 7.2 per cent from 2020.

Nguyễn Thanh Dương, deputy director of NSO, said the expansion of the business sector had also boosted employment.

By the end of 2025, enterprises employed nearly 17.6 million workers, up 7.5 per cent from 2024 and 19.7 per cent from 2020.

The faster growth in employment than in the number of businesses suggested that many companies were expanding operations and increasing their capacity to create jobs, with private and foreign-invested firms making the largest contributions to employment growth, he said.

Household and individual businesses continued to play an important role in the economy, with nearly 5.3 million establishments, up 1.1 per cent from 2020.

However, employment in the sector fell to nearly 8.6 million people, down 1.1 per cent over the five-year period, marking the first decline in household business employment recorded across economic censuses.

The NSO said the trend reflected a gradual shift of workers from household businesses to formal enterprises and higher-productivity industries, while underscoring the need for household businesses to modernise operations, improve productivity and strengthen competitiveness. — VNS