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
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
business | Name of the business (varchar) |
year_founded | Year the business was founded (int) |
category_code | Code for the business category (varchar) |
country_code | ISO 3166-1 three-letter country code (char) |
countries
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
country_code | ISO 3166-1 three-letter country code (varchar) |
country | Name of the country (varchar) |
continent | Name of the continent the country exists in (varchar) |
categories
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
category_code | Code for the business category (varchar) |
category | Description of the business category (varchar) |
-- What is the oldest business on each continent?
SELECT
sub1.continent,
sub2.country,
sub2.business,
sub1.year_founded
FROM (
SELECT
c.continent,
MIN(b.year_founded) AS year_founded
FROM businesses b
LEFT JOIN countries c
USING(country_code)
GROUP BY continent
) AS sub1
LEFT JOIN (
SELECT
c.country,
b.business,
year_founded
FROM businesses b
LEFT JOIN countries c
USING(country_code)
) AS sub2
ON sub1.year_founded = sub2.year_founded
ORDER BY year_founded ASC
;WITH ct1 AS (
SELECT
c.continent,
MIN(b.year_founded) AS year_founded
FROM businesses b
LEFT JOIN countries c
USING(country_code)
GROUP BY continent
),
ct2 AS (
SELECT
c.country,
b.business,
year_founded
FROM businesses b
LEFT JOIN countries c
USING(country_code)
)
SELECT
ct1.continent,
ct2.country,
ct2.business,
ct1.year_founded
FROM ct1
LEFT JOIN ct2
ON ct1.year_founded = ct2.year_founded
ORDER BY year_founded ASC
;-- How many countries per continent lack data on the oldest businesses
-- Does including the `new_businesses` data change this?
SELECT
c.continent,
COUNT(c.country) countries_without_businesses
FROM countries c
LEFT JOIN businesses b
USING(country_code)
LEFT JOIN new_businesses nb
USING(country_code)
WHERE b.business IS NULL AND nb.business IS NULL
GROUP BY continent
ORDER BY countries_without_businesses DESC
;-- Which business categories are best suited to last over the course of centuries?
SELECT
c1.continent,
c2.category,
MIN(b.year_founded) AS year_founded
FROM businesses b
LEFT JOIN countries c1
USING(country_code)
LEFT JOIN categories c2
USING(category_code)
GROUP BY continent, category
ORDER BY continent
;