February 2026 | Latest insight
Firm persistence
What is firm persistence?
Firm persistence describes how frequently the top firms in an industry turn over from year to year.
We follow Andrews et al. (2023), who measure firm persistence as the percentage of the top four largest firms in an industry in a given year that are still in the top four three years later.
Why does it matter?
Higher or increasing firm persistence indicates less competition, because where the same firms are more likely to remain as the largest firms in an industry it suggests that:
- mid-sized challengers may be struggling to grow and displace the largest firms;
- the largest firms may not need to compete as fiercely on price or quality to keep or win customers; or
- the largest firms may not need to innovate in order to maintain their position at the top (OECD, 2021).
However, firm persistence can sometimes be low in industries with strong competition, where the largest firms compete fiercely with each other.
What is happening with firm persistence?
Long term
In the long run, firm persistence across Australian industries has decreased from 62% to 61%.
Short termFirm persistence across Australian industries peaked at 70% before falling rapidly to 61% by the end of the COVID period (2021). It will be important to track if, like many other competition measures, firm persistence "rebounds" in the post-COVID period.
Firm persistence trended upwards over a decade, but COVID reversed this trend
Percentage of an industry's four largest firms in a given year that are still in the top four three years later (excluding finance and non-market industries)
February 2026 | In-depth look
Firm persistence by industry
Firm persistence by industry
Share of current top four firms still in the top four after three years.