The line graph illustrates how many stores ceased trading and opened in a particular nation from 2011 to 2018. Overall, the number of closures and openings experienced a downward trend during the period with significant fluctuations resulting in the lead changing several times.
Commencing with the initial four years, in 2011 openings were higher than closes with approximately 8500, whilst closures stood at around 6500. Both declined and by 2012 openings had dropped below closures to just below 4,000 whilst closures sat at 6,000. Closures subsequently rose to peak at slightly over 7,000 before falling back to about 6,500 in 2014; whilst openings had a steady increase to reach slightly above 6,000.
Turning to the remaining period, by 2015 closures had fallen dramatically to about 750, putting it well below openings, whilst openings had a moderate decline to 4,000. It remained at that figure in 2016 but it then rose slightly in 2017; after which it dropped to 3,000. However, closures bounced back reaching approximately 5,000 in 2016, once again overtaking openings. It had a slight drop in 2017 but ended up back to just above 5,000 in 2018.
