---
license: mit
language:
  - en
  - fr
  - de
tags:
  - entity-resolution
  - record-linkage
  - blocking
  - company-names
size_categories:
  - 10M<n<100M
configs:
  - config_name: companies
    description: One row per company, in the shared canonical schema, split by source.
    data_files:
      - split: fr
        path: data/canonical/fr/primary/**/*.parquet
      - split: gb
        path: data/canonical/gb/primary/**/*.parquet
      - split: de
        path: data/canonical/offeneregister/primary/**/*.parquet
      - split: ie
        path: data/canonical/ie/primary/**/*.parquet
      - split: gleif
        path: data/canonical/gleif/primary/**/*.parquet
      - split: wikidata
        path: data/canonical/wikidata/primary/**/*.parquet
  - config_name: names
    description: Other names each company is known by, split by source.
    data_files:
      - split: fr
        path: data/canonical/fr/names/*.parquet
      - split: gb
        path: data/canonical/gb/names/*.parquet
      - split: de
        path: data/canonical/offeneregister/names/*.parquet
      - split: wikidata
        path: data/canonical/wikidata/names/*.parquet
      - split: gleif
        path: data/canonical/gleif/names/*.parquet
  - config_name: matched
    description: GLEIF rows carrying a link into a national register, split by jurisdiction.
    data_files:
      - split: de
        path: data/matched/gleif/primary/jurisdiction_code=de/*.parquet
      - split: fr
        path: data/matched/gleif/primary/jurisdiction_code=fr/*.parquet
      - split: gb
        path: data/matched/gleif/primary/jurisdiction_code=gb/*.parquet
      - split: ie
        path: data/matched/gleif/primary/jurisdiction_code=ie/*.parquet
  - config_name: samples
    description: About 16k rows per source, to look at before downloading a whole one.
    data_files:
      - split: fr
        path: data/canonical/fr/sample.parquet
      - split: gb
        path: data/canonical/gb/sample.parquet
      - split: de
        path: data/canonical/offeneregister/sample.parquet
      - split: ie
        path: data/canonical/ie/sample.parquet
      - split: gleif
        path: data/canonical/gleif/sample.parquet
      - split: wikidata
        path: data/canonical/wikidata/sample.parquet
  - config_name: duplicates
    description: Rows dropped as duplicates, kept for inspection; two columns more than a company row.
    data_files:
      - split: gleif
        path: data/canonical/gleif/gleif-duplicates-*.parquet
      - split: ie
        path: data/canonical/ie/ie-duplicates-*.parquet
---

# Company registers in one schema, with name variants and cross-register links

Six public company sources mapped into one column set, with the name variants
each register publishes and the GLEIF rows that carry a link into a national
register. Built for blocking and record linkage.

It holds:

- 884,070 Wikidata companies, extracted from the 145 GB entity dump by the
  `P279` subclass closure beneath *company*.
- Six registers on one column set, 28.7M companies in total.
- 8.1M name variants, as each register publishes them.
- 645,437 GLEIF rows carrying a link into a national register.

## What is here

| Source | Rows | Names | Jurisdictions | Snapshot |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `fr`, INSEE SIRENE | 12,930,798 | 1,397,729 | `fr` | 2026-06-01 |
| `gb`, Companies House | 5,698,275 | 645,313 | `gb` | 2026-06-01 |
| `offeneregister`, German Handelsregister | 5,305,727 | 1,346,089 | `de` | 2026-08-25 |
| `gleif`, Global LEI index | 3,076,432 | 3,638,577 | 308 | 2026-06-21 |
| `wikidata` | 884,070 | 1,054,902 | 73 | 2026-07-16 |
| `ie`, CRO Ireland | 817,761 | — | `ie` | 2026-06-21 |

Each source is the publisher's own bulk file, taken once on the date given.

## Layout

```
data/canonical/<source>/primary/jurisdiction_code=<code>/part-*.parquet   one row per company
data/canonical/<source>/names/*.parquet                                   other names for those companies
data/canonical/<source>/sample.{parquet,jsonl,csv}                        ~16k rows, the same rows in three formats
data/canonical/<source>/*-duplicates-*.parquet                            rows dropped as duplicates, kept for inspection
data/matched/gleif/primary/jurisdiction_code=<code>/part-*.parquet        GLEIF rows carrying a national-register link
data/prepare/wikidata/wikidata-companies.jsonl                            the companies drawn out of the Wikidata dump
```

In the CSV the two list columns, `alternative_names` and `previous_names`, are
joined with `|`; the JSON Lines copy keeps them as lists.

### The Wikidata extract

`wikidata-companies.jsonl` is the raw extract: 884,070 entities in 612 MB, one
JSON object per entity as the dump holds it, before any mapping. It was taken
from the full 145 GB entity dump in a single pass.

An entity is kept when its `P31` (instance of) or `P1454` (legal form) names a
Q-code in the `P279` subclass closure beneath *company*, 49,176 codes.
Everything under `data/canonical/wikidata/` is built from this file, which
also carries the fields the canonical schema does not keep.

`primary` is partitioned by `jurisdiction_code`, so one country can be read
without the rest:

```python
import polars as pl

gb = pl.read_parquet("data/canonical/gb/primary/jurisdiction_code=gb/*.parquet")
names = pl.read_parquet("data/canonical/gb/names/*.parquet")
```

## Columns

### A company (`primary`, 21 columns)

Column names follow the [OpenCorporates company
object](https://api.opencorporates.com/documentation/API-Reference#Companies)
where one fits.

| Column | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `system_uri` | This row's identity, `<source>://<id>`, e.g. `gb://03909510` |
| `jurisdiction_code` | Where the company is registered |
| `company_number` | The register's own identifier for it |
| `name` | Its legal name |
| `alternative_names`, `previous_names` | Other names, where the register gives them inline |
| `company_type` | Legal form, as the register words it |
| `current_status`, `inactive` | Whether it is live, as the register words it |
| `incorporation_date`, `dissolution_date` | ISO dates where parsed |
| `branch`, `branch_status` | Whether the row is a branch rather than a company |
| `registered_address_in_full` | The address as one string, where published |
| `registry_url` | Its page in the register |
| `lei` | Legal Entity Identifier, where one resolves |
| `match_uri` | The same company in another source, where one is known |
| `opencorporates_url`, `vat`, `tax_id` | Reserved, always null |
| `metadata_generated_utc` | When this row was written here |

### A name (`names`, 9 columns)

One row per name a company is also known by.

| Column | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `system_uri` | This name's own identity, `name://<source>/<id>/<hash>` |
| `source_uri` | The company it belongs to |
| `name` | The name itself |
| `name_type` | What kind: `previous`, `alias`, `official`, `short`, `acronym`, ... |
| `source_type` | What the register called that kind, before it was mapped |
| `language_code`, `jurisdiction_code`, `id`, `derivation_note` | Where it came from |

### A cross-register link (`data/matched/gleif`)

The same 21 columns, holding the 645,437 GLEIF rows whose `match_uri` points
at a company in `gb`, `ie`, `fr` or `de`.

## How it was built

Each source's bulk file was downloaded, split into shards, and mapped into the
columns above, with per-source rules for the parts that differ: how a company
number is spelled, which field is the legal name, which value means dissolved.
Duplicate rows were removed and kept separately rather than dropped silently.
Names were gathered from whichever field each register publishes them in and
given one shared vocabulary of name types.

Names are as the registers publish them: not normalised, lowercased or
stripped of their legal form.

## Known gaps

- **`ie` has no names file.** Ireland's bulk download publishes one name per
  company, so there are no variants to collect.
- **`wikidata` rows with no jurisdiction** sit in a
  `__HIVE_DEFAULT_PARTITION__` partition.
- **Every source is one snapshot**, taken on the date in the table. Companies
  registered, renamed or dissolved since are not here.
- **`match_uri` is only as complete as GLEIF is.** A company with no LEI has no
  link, so absence of a link is not evidence that no match exists.

## Licensing information

Each source keeps its own terms. What each publisher states, in its own words,
with the page it says it on. Those pages are the terms; this table points at
them.

| Source | Licence, as the publisher states it | Stated on |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `fr` | [Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0](https://www.etalab.gouv.fr/licence-ouverte-open-licence) | [data.gouv.fr](https://www.data.gouv.fr/en/datasets/base-sirene-des-entreprises-et-de-leurs-etablissements-siren-siret/) |
| `gb` | "All content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0, except where otherwise stated" | [Companies House data products](https://www.gov.uk/guidance/companies-house-data-products) |
| `offeneregister` | "Die Daten können unter der Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 mit Attribution an OpenCorporates weiterverwendet werden" | [offeneregister.de](https://offeneregister.de) |
| `gleif` | "The data available through the Access Service are provided under the CC0 licence" | [LEI data terms of use](https://www.gleif.org/en/meta/lei-data-terms-of-use) |
| `wikidata` | "All structured data from the main, Property, Lexeme, and EntitySchema namespace is available under the Creative Commons CC0 License" | [Wikidata:Database download](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Database_download) |
| `ie` | [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) | [CRO open data](https://opendata.cro.ie/dataset/companies) |

Two publishers ask for attribution in particular words:

- **German data:** attribution to OpenCorporates.
- **Irish data:** "Contains Irish Public Sector Data licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence".

The `license` field at the top of this card is the repository's own metadata
field and restates none of the above. Statements read from those pages on
2026-09-23; publishers change their terms, so the pages are the current source.

## What is in the rows

These are public company registers, so the rows carry what registers carry:
company names, registered addresses, and legal forms.

French sole traders are not among them. SIRENE's legal category `1000`,
*Entrepreneur individuel*, is a natural person rather than a company, and
those rows are dropped when the French source is mapped into this schema: no
row under `fr` carries that category.