RESEARCH FOR

ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY IN KURZEME REGION
the number of merchants per 1000 inhabitants in the municipalities of Kurzeme
considerably. Convincing results are in the small
in terms of the amount of population Roja, which
induces searching for reasons of such a large number
of enterprises in this area, because, for instance, in
the review “Regional Development In Latvia, 2010”
the data testifies that in the period from 2006 to the
beginning of 2011 the amount of Roja population
diminished even more rapidly than on the average
in municipalities of Latvia. So, the answer to the
question, why there is a larger entrepreneurial activity
in one area than in another, should be searched not
only in connection with the amount of population. The
fewest active merchants per 1000 inhabitants are in
Vaiņode and Priekule municipalities - 11, which are
followed by Durbe municipality with 14 and Rucava
municipality with 15 merchants per 1000 inhabitants.
Vaiņode, Priekule and Rucava municipalities are
border municipalities with a relatively small number
of population. Due to calculations, it is obvious that
more decent results are in local authorities, which are
in larger towns or border with large cities, for example,
Nīca and Grobiņa municipalities border with Liepāja.
The results induce to investigate more in depth, which
are the entrepreneurial activity influencing factors in
a certain area.
Since the largest part (46.1%) of the economically
active statistical units in the Kurzeme Region are self-
Meldra Gineite
Table 4
Municipality Active merchants, 2010 Inhabitants
Number of merchants per
1000 population
Roja 116 3967 29
Liepāja 2152 76570 28
Ventspils 1064 38645 28
Mērsrags 44 1638 27
Nīca 96 3578 27
Saldus 686 25584 27
Talsi 786 31192 25
Kuldīga 533 24849 21
Grobiņa 185 9361 20
Ventspils municipality 237 12135 20
Skrunda 91 5305 17
Alsunga 25 1470 17
Pāvilosta 48 2847 17
Dundaga 71 4237 17
Brocēni 102 6225 16
Aizpute 148 9265 16
Rucava 27 1811 15
Durbe 42 3047 14
Vaiņode 28 2609 11
Priekule 62 5833 11
Source: authors’ calculation by data of Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia (provisional data of 2010) and provisional data
of Population Population Census (2011).
employed persons (Table 1), the author also examined
the number of self-employed persons in the division of
local authorities. Data on municipalities is accessible
only for 2009 and 2010, whereas, provisorial results
- for 2010.
As we can see in Table 5, the largest amount of
self-employed persons in 2010 is observed in Liepāja
(1519), Talsi (1097) and Kuldīga (863) municipalities.
In turn, the fewest number of self-employed people
is registered in Mērsrags (17) and Roja (50)
municipality. Comparing to 2009 and 2010 the number
of self-employed persons increased almost in all
local authorities, except Brocēni, Roja and Mērsrags
municipalities, where the amount of self-employed
persons diminished accordingly by 11 and 20 and 4
persons. Also, the number of self-employed persons
is especially high in the cities of state importance
(in Liepāja and Ventspils), as well as in the largest
Kurzeme Region municipalities - Talsi, Saldus and
Kuldīga. However, analysing the data on the amount
of self-employed persons per 1000 inhabitants in
each local authority (Table 5), it is evident that the
highest pointers are in Rucava (75) and Priekule (62)
municipalities, where, for example, the number of
merchants was relatively one of the lowest (Table 4).
In turn, the fewest numbers of self-employed
persons per 1000 inhabitants are in Mērsrags and Roja
220 ReseaRch foR RuRal Development 2012