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Business In Ireland 2014

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs)

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This chapter outlines some of the main CSO statistics available for SMEs. Chapter 4, which deals with Business Performance in Ireland, also contains data on these enterprises.

SMEs are defined as enterprises with less than 250 persons engaged. In this chapter, SMEs are further split into Micro enterprises with less than 10 persons engaged, other Small enterprises with between 10 and 49 persons engaged and Medium sized enterprises with between 50 and 249 persons engaged. See Appendix 3.

See Tables 3.1and 3.2 in this chapter for more detail on the data used in graphs.

Key Statistics on SMEs

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	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Active enterprises	99.7842593253277	0.215740674672297
Persons engaged	68.9492771816643	31.0507228183357
Turnover	56.1316239803566	43.8685931489808
GVA	49.6028186649609	50.3980125453564

Large enterprises employed over 31% of all persons engaged in 2014 and accounted for 0.2% of total number of enterprises.
Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 99.8% of total number of enterprises in 2014 and nearly 69% of all persons engaged.
SMEs generated 56.1% of total Turnover in the business economy and just under 50% of Gross Value added was attributed to these enterprises.

Micro enterprises accounted for 92.3% of all enterprises in 2014.
Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 7.5% of the total number of enterprises, while Large enterprises accounted for the remaining 0.2%.

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	GVA
Micro (<10)	92.2933569500816
Small (10-49)	6.38533634978531
Medium (50-249)	1.10556602546076
Large (250+)	0.215740674672297

Micro enterprises accounted for just 28% of persons engaged, despite the fact that they had the highest number of enterprises.
Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 41% of total persons engaged in 2014.

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	% of total persons engaged
Micro (<10)	28
Small (10-49)	21.9
Medium (50-249)	19.1
Large (250+)	31.1

SMEs accounted for just under half of all Gross Value Added in the Business Economy in 2014.
Micro enterprises contributed 24.3% of total GVA.
Small and Medium enterprises combined, generated the remaining 25% of Gross Value Added.

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	GVA
Micro (<10)	24.2802763302121
Small (10-49)	13.0854579587395
Medium (50-249)	12.2370843760093
Large (250+)	50.3980125453564

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Construction	92.418385740036	7.58161425996395
Services	74.2796667569764	25.7203332430236
Distribution	72.2254546318121	27.7745453681879
Industry	54.4501175520673	45.5498824479327
Financial and Insurance	32.2247563756998	67.7752436243002

Construction had the largest share of its persons engaged in Small and Medium enterprises in 2014, at 92.4%.
Both the Services and Distribution sectors reported over 70% of all persons engaged to be in SMEs.
Unlike other sectors, the majority of employment for the Financial and Insurance sector, 68%, came from Large enterprises.

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Construction	91.4783482600512	8.52165173994877
Distribution	69.9939617171956	30.0060382828044
Services	55.3238504670174	44.6761495329826
Industry	27.3813266268469	72.6186733731531

In the Construction sector, 91.5% of all Gross Value Added was in Small and Medium enterprises in 2014.
SMEs in the Distribution and Services sectors recorded 70% and 55.3% of all GVA respectively.

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
% of active enterprises	6.87319915031443	19.9099838054977	19.1524176078407	51.3184848676047	2.74591456874251

The Services sector accounted for over 51% of all Small and Medium enterprises in 2014, with Construction having the second highest percentage at 19.9%.
The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 2.7% of all SMEs. This is largely reflective of the fact that the majority of enterprises in this sector were Large enterprises.

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
% of persons engaged	12.4613036748465	10.0315875058697	26.4464381989252	47.6819162072384	3.37875441312023

The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of persons engaged in Small and Medium enterprises in 2014 with over 47%. The lowest proportion was in the Financial and Insurance sector with just 3.4%.
Having accounted for nearly 20% of all active Small and Medium enterpises, Construction accounted for just 10% of persons engaged in SMEs.
The Distribution sector accounted for 26.4% of all persons engaged in 2014 even though they had only 19.2% of all active SMEs.
The Industry sector reported 12.5% of all persons engaged and 6.9% of all Small and Medium enterprises.

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
GVA	18.974313712287	8.58354765713278	21.1702290590322	51.271909571548

Enterprises in the Services sector reported over 51% of all SME Gross Value Added.
The Distribution and Industry sectors had 21% and 19% of GVA respectively.
Small and Medium Enterprises in the Construction sector recorded the lowest share of Gross Value Added at 8.6%.

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total business economy
2008	100	100	100	100	100	100
2009	89.2	71.4	91.9	90.4	92.4	87.5
2010	81.9	56.3	88.3	88	92.9	82.2
2011	81	51.2	87.9	88.5	97	81.5
2012	78.8	48.3	87	90.5	96.6	81.3
2013	78.1	48.8	87.3	92.8	97.9	82.4
2014	81.6	52	88.6	97.1	99.3	85.6

All sectors experienced decreases in persons engaged in Small and Medium Enterprises between the base year 2008 and 2014. However, all sectors also showed an increase in persons engaged in SMEs in 2014 compared to 2013.
Construction reported the largest decrease in the period 2008 - 2014, with 2014 figures almost half of the level in 2008.
In relation to SMEs, employment across all sectors in 2014 was at 85.6% of the level that was recorded in 2008.

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total business economy
2008	100	100	100	100	100	100
2009	92.6	60.1	93.5	93.9	94.4	92.6
2010	86.8	36.3	87	91	97.5	88.5
2011	87.5	30.2	86.9	89.8	95.7	87.8
2012	88.1	28.9	88.6	92.1	97.5	89.4
2013	90.8	36.3	93	95.8	95	92.1
2014	95.4	59.3	93.5	98.5	94.5	94.9

All sectors experienced decreases in persons engaged in Large enterprises between the base year 2008 and 2014. However, all sectors (except for the Financial and Insurance sector with a slight decrease of 0.5%) showed an increase in 2014 compared to 2013 levels.
Construction showed the largest decrease in persons engaged in Large enterprises in the period 2008 - 2014, with 2014 figures just over 40% lower than 2008 levels.
With respect to Large enterprises, the total business economy employment in 2014 was at 94.9% of the level that was recorded in 2008.

3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2014

3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2014

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Table 3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2014
												No.
	Industry		Construction		Distribution		Services		Financial and Insurance¹		Total Business Economy
Class Size	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged

Micro (<10)	14,160	25,178	46,180	65,893	39,732	88,854	113,915	183,504	5,901	9,913	219,888	373,342
Small (10-49)	1,654	34,861	1,064	19,069	5,162	96,912	6,818	131,107	515	9,765	15,213	291,714
Medium (50-249)	526	54,603	89	7,327	638	57,537	1,269	124,055	112	11,406	2,634	254,928

All SMEs (<250)	16,340	114,642	47,333	92,289	45,532	243,303	122,002	438,666	6,528	31,084	237,735	919,984

Large	157	95,903	16	7,571	86	93,563	189	151,894	66	65,376	514	414,307

All sizes	16,497	210,545	47,349	99,860	45,618	336,866	122,191	590,560	6,594	96,460	238,249	1,334,291

Source: CSO Business Demography
¹Excludes activities of financial holding companies (K642).

Table 3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2014
										€m
	Industry		Construction		Distribution		Services¹		Total Business Economy¹
Class Size	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added

Micro (<10)	7,747	2,960	9,601	3,768	32,981	4,935	54,717	17,548	105,046	29,211
Small (10-49)	10,604	3,061	2,458	980	44,986	4,618	22,517	7,084	80,565	15,743
Medium (50-249)	21,421	5,302	1,031	375	26,696	3,080	23,759	5,965	72,906	14,722

All SMEs (<250)	39,772	11,323	13,090	5,122	104,663	12,633	100,992	30,597	258,517	59,675

Large	87,595	30,031	1,118	477	28,490	5,416	84,836	24,708	202,039	60,632

All sizes	127,366	41,353	14,208	5,599	133,153	18,049	185,828	55,305	460,555	120,307

Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹ Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and includes Services sectors of R92, R93, S95, S96.

Business In Ireland 2014

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs)

Key Statistics on SMEs

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