The line graph compares the rate of openning and closure of shops in a country during a period of 7 years.
It is evident that the number of shops that closed was higher than that of newly opened shops in the majority of the given period. Although at the beginning the rate of opening was higher, by the end of the period closed shops outnumbered newly opened ones.
Looking at the chart in more detail, it is noticeable that 8500 stores were opened in 2011, whereas about 6400 were closed. The total number of closed shops fluctuated between just under 6000 and fairly over 7000 in the three following years. However, the figure for openings plunged dramatically to below 4000 in 2012, and then rose to around 6100 in 2014.
In 2015, the number of opened stores decreased to 4000 and remained almost steady during the next two years. Similarly, the rate of closures plummeted steeply to reach a low at nearly 600. Yet, the figure for closure rose significantly to over 5000 by 2016, surpassing the rate of openings. Afterwards, the number of closed shops experienced a plateau until the end of the period. By contrast, the firure for openings dropped to 3000 shops after 2 years of steady rate of about 4000.