Where the data come from and how we treat them

The sources

Every dembli page cites its source and the publication read in one line, linked here. Here is the rest: the official dataset, the legal basis, what we read and when we update.

• Receita Federal

  Dados Abertos do CNPJ

  Companies, establishments, partners and the Simples and MEI options. Published once a month; dembli keeps each publication and shows what changed month by month.

  Publication read

  October 2026

  Last whole month

  September 2026

  Next update expected

  November 2026

  Published as open data under Decree 8,777/2016, which anyone may reuse citing the Receita Federal: that is why every page using them says the source and the month read. dembli never shows anyone's CPF. Decree 8,777/2016 ↗

  See the official publisher ↗

• PGFN

  Dívida Ativa da União

  Those inscribed in the federal active debt, which the Attorney General of the National Treasury publishes every quarter. A company's page shows only whether it is listed in the latest quarter, never an amount.

  The PGFN's open data. The official consultation, at listadevedores.pgfn.gov.br, shows each entry.

  See the official publisher ↗

• IBGE

  CNAE 2.3, municípios e divisão regional

  The classification of economic activities, with the notes explaining what each comprises; the municipalities' official names and the metropolitan and immediate regions they belong to; and the states' mesh, which draws the maps.

  Brazil's official classifications and divisions, published by IBGE for public use.

  See the official publisher ↗

• Each company is counted once, by its head office. Opening is the date its activity began; closure is the date its registration was closed.
• The Receita publishes the registry once a month and cuts it mid-month: so the last month counted is September 2026, the one before the publication's.
• A closure can be recorded with an earlier date; the latest months may gain closures in later publications.
• A company opened as a MEI when its MEI option began within a month of its opening, even if it is no longer one.
• We leave out the CNPJs of electoral candidacies, which the Electoral Court opens for each candidate and closes at the end of the year: 24,268 in 2002; 399,005 in 2004; 20,839 in 2006; 384,031 in 2008; 22,541 in 2010; 481,412 in 2012; 26,201 in 2014; 496,844 in 2016; 29,454 in 2018; 557,401 in 2020; 29,282 in 2022; 464,004 in 2024; 21,122 in 2026.
• Count statistics-v1, over 67,558,951 companies of the registry.

• No CPF, nor the digits the Receita leaves visible.
• Partners, phone and e-mail only when the visitor asks, and never to search engines.
• The names of partners who may be minors.
• The phone and e-mail of an individual entrepreneur or MEI.
• A contact given by more than 20 companies, usually an accountant's or a service's.
• No record found by a company's or a person's name alone.

The registry's glossary

Registration status

How the Receita Federal records the company's registration: active, suspended, unfit, closed or null (annulled). It is a registry fact, not an assessment of the company.

Special situation

A record beyond the registration status, such as judicial recovery, bankruptcy or liquidation, with the date it began.

Head office and branch

The head office is the seat; each branch is an establishment with its own CNPJ, sharing the first eight digits with the head office. dembli's counts use the head office.

Main and secondary CNAE

The activity the company declares as its main one and the others it also carries out, by IBGE's National Classification of Economic Activities.

MEI

Individual microentrepreneur: one who bills up to the law's limit and pays taxes as a fixed monthly amount. On dembli, "opened as MEI" means opting into MEI up to a month after opening.

Simples Nacional

A tax regime for micro and small companies. The registry says whether the company opted in and since when.

Size

How the registry classes the company: micro company, small company or other. MEI is shown apart.

Publication

The set of files the Receita publishes each month. Every dembli page says which publication its numbers come from.