The line graph illustrates the trend of shop closures and openings in a country between 2011 and 2018. We can see that there is a sharp drop in the shop closures line in 2015.
To begin, in 2011, the number of shop openings were around 6,400, outnumbered by closures at about 8,600. The gap widened in 2012, as openings fell to approximately 4,000, while closures slightly decreased but remained steady. However, from 2013 to 2014, shop closures declined to below 6,500, whereas openings rose to over 6,100, narrowing the gap significantly. Making them nearly equal.
Both figures dropped significantly in 2015 with closures falling below 1,000 and openings at around 4,000. Closures spiked to about 5,200 in 2016, surpassing steady openings at 4,000. In contrast, 2017 saw a slight increase in shop openings, exceeding 4,100, while closures decreased to around 5,000. By 2018, shop closures stabilized at about 5,200 and openings dropping to around 3,000. Throughout the period, shop closures consistently outnumbered openings, except for 2014, when the numbers were almost identical and 2015, where closures dropped lower than openings.