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Staffelter Hof Winery is Germany's oldest business, established in 862 under the Carolingian dynasty. It has continued to serve customers through dramatic changes in Europe, such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and both world wars. What characteristics enable a business to stand the test of time?

To help answer this question, BusinessFinancing.co.uk researched the oldest company still in business in almost every country and compiled the results into several CSV files. This dataset has been cleaned.

Having useful information in different files is a common problem. While it's better to keep different types of data separate for data storage, you'll want all the data in one place for analysis. You'll use joining and data manipulation to work with this data and better understand the world's oldest businesses.

The Data

businesses and new_businesses

ColumnDescription
businessName of the business (varchar)
year_foundedYear the business was founded (int)
category_codeCode for the business category (varchar)
country_codeISO 3166-1 three-letter country code (char)

countries

ColumnDescription
country_codeISO 3166-1 three-letter country code (varchar)
countryName of the country (varchar)
continentName of the continent the country exists in (varchar)

categories

ColumnDescription
category_codeCode for the business category (varchar)
categoryDescription of the business category (varchar)
Spinner
DataFrameas
oldest_business_continent
variable
-- What is the oldest business on each continent?
-- Select continent, country, business name, and founding year for the oldest business on each continent
SELECT 
    ctr.continent,      -- Retrieve the name of the continent
    ctr.country,        -- Retrieve the country associated with the business
    b.business,         -- Retrieve the business name
    b.year_founded      -- Retrieve the year the business was founded
FROM 
    businesses b
JOIN 
    countries ctr ON b.country_code = ctr.country_code
    -- Join the countries table to access the continent information associated with each country
JOIN 
    (SELECT continent, MIN(year_founded) AS oldest_year 
     FROM businesses 
     JOIN countries ON businesses.country_code = countries.country_code
     GROUP BY continent) oldest 
    -- Subquery: For each continent, find the minimum founding year (oldest business)
    ON ctr.continent = oldest.continent 
    AND b.year_founded = oldest.oldest_year;
    -- Join the main query with the subquery based on matching continent and the oldest founding year
Spinner
DataFrameas
count_missing
variable
-- How many countries per continent lack data on the oldest businesses
-- Does including the `new_businesses` data change this?
-- Count countries without business data in either businesses or new_businesses tables
SELECT 
    c.continent,                     -- Select the continent for grouping
    COUNT(c.country_code) AS countries_without_businesses  -- Count countries lacking data on businesses
FROM 
    countries c
LEFT JOIN 
    businesses b ON c.country_code = b.country_code  -- Left join to identify countries missing from businesses table
LEFT JOIN 
    new_businesses nb ON c.country_code = nb.country_code  -- Left join to identify countries missing from new_businesses table
WHERE 
    b.country_code IS NULL         -- Ensure country is missing in businesses table
    AND nb.country_code IS NULL    -- Ensure country is missing in new_businesses table
GROUP BY 
    c.continent;                    -- Group by continent to count missing countries per continent
Spinner
DataFrameas
oldest_by_continent_category
variable
-- Which business categories are best suited to last over the course of centuries?
-- Find the oldest business categories by continent
SELECT 
    c.continent,                  -- Retrieve the continent name for grouping
    cat.category,                 -- Retrieve the business category name
    MIN(b.year_founded) AS year_founded  -- Find the earliest year for each category by continent
FROM 
    businesses b
JOIN 
    countries c ON b.country_code = c.country_code   -- Join to get continent info from countries table
JOIN 
    categories cat ON b.category_code = cat.category_code  -- Join to get category descriptions from categories table
GROUP BY 
    c.continent, cat.category     -- Group by continent and category to get the minimum founding year per group
ORDER BY 
    c.continent, year_founded;    -- Order results by continent and founding year for readability