The graph below shows the number of shops that closed in the number of new shops that opened in one country between 2011 and 2018.

The given chart compared the

number

of new

shops

and the

number

of closed ones in the period between 2011 and 2018 in a country.

Overall

, a downward trend was observed in both the quantities of

shops

which were closed and opened from 2011 to 2017, with some fluctuation in that period.

Moreover

, the lowest

number

of shop closures was observed in 2015, as opposed to that of shop openings in 2018. In 2011, there were approximately 8,500 new

shops

launched,

while

the

number

of stores going out of business stood at around 6,500. From there, the figures for shop closures oscillated until 2014 with about 6,500 stores recorded, before plummeting to hit a nadir of below 1,000 in 2015.

In contrast

, the data on the launches of new stores dropped dramatically by more than half from 2011 to 2015,

then

rose back substantially to just above 6,000 in the next 2 years before declining gradually to 4,000 in 2015. Moving forward, more

shops

were closed from 2015 to 2016, as the figure was seen rising to above 2015; after that, the figure levelled off around there until 2018.

Conversely

, the data on new

shops

plateaued from 2015 until 2016 at 4,000,

then

rose insignificantly in 2017 before decreasing slightly to 3,000 in 2018.