JRC policy brief highlights innovation potential of rural regions

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre published a policy brief on 'Entrepreneurship in the EU: key insights into business dynamics in rural regions' on 29 October 2025. This brief presents JRC analyses exploring entrepreneurship and business dynamics across EU territories. The evidence confirms urban–rural gaps in firm creation, high-growth enterprises, and especially in the startup landscape, while also highlighting distinctive strengths and success stories showing that rural areas can be engines of growth not only in sectors often associated with rural economies, but also in more diversified and knowledge-intensive activities. These findings point to untapped entrepreneurial potential of rural territories and the need for place-based policies to turn it into a driver of Europe’s competitiveness.

Overall, the findings underline how the right local conditions can favour a balanced entrepreneurial development across rural and urban regions. Place-based, integrated public initiatives based on granular territorial data can address territorial disparities and unlock the full growth potential of all EU territories, ensuring that no region – urban, intermediate or rural – is left behind. Enabling conditions for innovative ecosystems include:

• Investing in targeted skills development programmes aligned with local economic needs
• Improving access to finance
• Reducing administrative burdens and enhancing digital governance tools
• Upgrading digital infrastructure, as well as transport and facilities
• Promoting entrepreneurial education and culture
• Fostering innovation networks, peer learning and capacity building

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JRC policy brief: Entrepreneurship in the EU: key insights into business dynamics in rural regions