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Business in Ireland 2016

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs)

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This chapter outlines some of the main CSO statistics available on 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 3.1 and 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	99.8	0.2
Persons engaged	68.4	31.6
Turnover	50.2	49.8
GVA	41.4	58.6

Large enterprises (250+ employees) employed almost 32% of all persons engaged in 2016 and accounted for 0.2% of total number of enterprises. See tables 3.1 and 3.2
SMEs accounted for 99.8% of total number of enterprises in 2016 and over 68% of all persons engaged
SMEs generated 50.2% of total Turnover in the business economy and over 41% of Gross Value Added was attributed to these enterprises

Micro enterprises (<10 employees) accounted for 91.8% of all enterprises in 2016
Small (10-49 employees) and Medium (50-249 employees) enterprises accounted for 8.0% 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	Active enterprises
Micro (<10)	91.8
Small (10-49)	6.8
Medium (50-249)	1.2
Large (250+)	0.2

Large enterprises accounted for the greatest percentage of persons engaged in 2016 at almost 32% despite having the lowest number of enterprises (0.2%)
Micro enterprises accounted for nearly 27% of persons engaged and had the highest number of enterprises (91.8%)
Small and Medium enterprises combined accounted for almost 42% of total persons engaged in 2016 and 8% of the total number of enterprises

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Persons engaged
Micro (<10)	26.6
Small (10-49)	22.2
Medium (50-249)	19.7
Large (250+)	31.6

Large enterprises accounted for 58.6% of Gross Value Added in the Business Economy in 2016
SMEs accounted for 41.4% of all GVA
Small and Medium enterprises generated 22.8% of GVA
Micro enterprises contributed 18.6% of total Gross Value Added while representing almost 92% of all enterprises

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	GVA
Micro (<10)	18.6
Small (10-49)	12.2
Medium (50-249)	10.6
Large (250+)	58.6

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Construction	94.4	5.6
Services	72.6	27.4
Distribution	72.4	27.6
Industry	51.8	48.2
Financial and Insurance	33.8	66.2

Construction had the largest share of its persons engaged in SMEs in 2016, at 94.4%
Both the Services and Distribution sectors reported over 70% of all persons engaged to be in SMEs
Unlike other sectors, the majority of employment in the Financial and Insurance sector came from Large enterprises, at 66.2%

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Construction	90.4	9.6
Distribution	76.1	23.9
Services	60.5	39.5
Industry	15.1	84.9

In the Construction sector, over 90% of all Gross Value Added was in SMEs in 2016
SMEs in the Distribution sector recorded a figure of over 76% for GVA, compared to the Services sector at almost 61%
Industry SMEs accounted for just over 15% of GVA

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
percentage of active enterprises	7	20.7	18.6	51.1	2.6

SMEs in the Services sector made up over 51% of the number of enterprises in 2016, with Construction having the second highest percentage of SMEs at 20.7%
The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 2.6% of all SMEs.

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
percentage of persons engaged	12.1	11.2	25.5	47.9	3.3

The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of persons engaged in SMEs in 2016 (47.9%). The lowest proportion was in the Financial and Insurance sector with just 3.3% of persons engaged
Having accounted for almost 21% of all active SMEs, Construction accounted for just 11.2% of persons engaged in SMEs
The Distribution sector accounted for 25.5% of all persons engaged in 2016 even though it had only 18.6% of all active SMEs
The Industry sector reported 12.1% of all persons engaged and 7% of all SMEs

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
GVA	17.6	8	21.6	52.8

Enterprises in the Services sector accounted for almost 53% of all SMEs Gross Value Added
The Distribution and Industry sectors accounted for almost 22% and 18% of GVA respectively
SMEs in the Construction sector recorded the lowest rate of Gross Value Added at 8%

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total business economy
2011	100	100	100	100	100	100
2012	97.3	94.4	99.1	102.3	99.6	99.8
2013	96.4	95.3	99.4	104.8	101	101.1
2014	100.8	101.6	100.9	109.7	102.4	105
2015	104.1	113.1	104.1	116.1	107.9	110.6
2016	107.2	125.1	106.8	121.1	110.7	115.4

All sectors experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in SMEs between the base year 2011 and 2016
The Construction sector reported the largest increase in the period 2011 to 2016 at 25.1%, with Services next at 21.1%
The total business economy showed an overall increase of 15.4% for the same period

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total business economy
2011	100	100	100	100	100	100
2012	100.7	95.8	102.1	102.5	101.9	101.8
2013	103.8	120.3	107.1	106.6	99.3	105
2014	109.1	196.8	107.6	109.7	98.8	108.1
2015	117.6	156.7	109.1	119	98.3	113.2
2016	129	176.3	113.1	132	99.5	121.9

All sectors apart from the Financial and Insurance sector experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in Large enterprises between the base year 2011 and 2016
Construction showed the largest overall increase in persons engaged in Large enterprises in the period 2011 to 2016 with an increase of 76.3%, followed by the Services sector at 32.0%
The Financial and Insurance sector experienced a decrease of 0.5% between 2011 and 2016
With respect to Large enterprises, the total business economy employment showed an overall increase of 21.9% between 2011 and 2016

3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2016

3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2016

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Table 3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2016
												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)	15,029	26,973	49,968	75,535	40,355	90,286	118,347	190,158	5,834	9,877	229,533	392,829
Small (10-49)	1,802	38,098	1,454	26,722	5,424	103,268	7,705	149,106	529	10,378	16,914	327,572
Medium (50-249)	549	56,850	132	11,301	722	64,164	1,468	144,923	132	13,366	3,003	290,604
All SMEs (<250)	17,380	121,921	51,554	113,558	46,501	257,718	127,520	484,187	6,495	33,621	249,450	1,011,005
Large	175	113,431	14	6,783	94	98,339	237	182,797	62	65,881	582	467,231
All sizes	17,555	235,352	51,568	120,341	46,595	356,057	127,757	666,984	6,557	99,502	250,032	1,478,236
Source: CSO Business Demography
¹ Excludes activities of financial holding companies (K642).

Table 3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2016
										€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)	6,233	2,788	11,673	4,161	47,676	5,216	46,378	22,966	111,960	35,131
Small (10-49)	15,555	5,471	3,885	1,407	66,018	6,540	33,961	9,771	119,419	23,189
Medium (50-249)	19,782	5,560	1,837	691	40,341	5,164	30,459	8,673	92,419	20,088
All SMEs (<250)	41,570	13,819	17,395	6,260	154,035	16,919	110,798	41,411	323,798	78,409
Large	185,583	77,921	2,033	662	29,399	5,307	104,160	27,073	321,175	110,963
All sizes	227,154	91,740	19,428	6,922	183,434	22,226	214,959	68,484	644,975	189,372
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 2016

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs)

Key Statistics on SMEs

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