The number of business closures in the country surpassed one million in 2024 for the first time since records began.

According to data released Sunday by the National Tax Service, a total of one million eight-thousand-282 individuals and corporations filed for business closure in 2024, an increase of 21-thousand-795 from the previous year.

It is the first time the figure has exceeded one million since the nation began compiling such data in 1995.

Closures stood at approximately 922-thousand in 2019, then declined for three consecutive years before surging to over 986-thousand in 2023 and crossing the one million threshold in 2024.

The business closure rate has risen for two straight years, climbing from nine-point-02 percent in 2023 to nine-point-04 percent last year.

This means that roughly nine percent of all businesses in the country shut down in 2024.