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Business In Ireland 2017

Enterprise Births, Survivals and Deaths

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CSO Business Demography data monitors the number of enterprise births (new enterprises created) and deaths (enterprises that ceased trading) in the business economy. Births and deaths due to mergers, takeovers, break-ups, change of activity or the restructuring of a set of enterprises are all excluded from the data.

This chapter presents this information at sectoral level as well as for the total business economy. It is also possible to track new enterprise births in order to gain a better understanding of the types of business that are more likely to survive the early years of their life cycle¹.

¹See Appendix 2 for full definitions of enterprise births and deaths.

	Deaths	Births
2012	16201	15080
2013	18287	13824
2014	15337	16256
2015	15944	18100
2016	14262	19249
2017		22241

The total number of enterprises that ceased trading during 2016 was 14,262, a decrease of almost 10.5% from 2015 levels
Enterprise deaths decreased by 12% in the period 2012 to 2016
In 2017, births showed an annual increase of over 15% to 22,241 in the year
The number of new births increased by 47.5% in 2017 when compared to 2012
The lowest number of enterprise births between 2012 and 2017 occurred in 2013 when 13,824 enterprises were established

	Deaths	Births
2012	20471	18606
2013	22857	16505
2014	22584	19383
2015	21018	23073
2016	19616	24382
2017		23621

The total number of persons engaged in enterprises that ceased trading during 2016 was 19,616, a decrease of 6.7% from 2015 and over 4% when compared to 2012
Persons engaged in enterprise births increased from 18,606 in 2012 to 23,621 in 2017
The number of persons employed in enterprise births fell by 3.1% in 2017 compared to 2016

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
2012	925	2757	2704	8174	519
2013	968	2473	2304	7441	639
2014	1110	3526	2468	8735	418
2015	1186	4226	2573	9572	544
2016	1329	4623	2848	9983	466
2017	1409	5345	2933	11330	1223

All sectors showed an annual increase in the number of new enterprise births in 2017
The largest annual increase in the number of enterprise births took place in the Services sector, which showed an increase of 1,347 new enterprises on the previous year from 9,983 to 11,330 in 2017
The Financial and Insurance sector experienced the highest percentage increase in new births between 2016 and 2017 (+162.4%) and between 2012 and 2017 it increased by 135.6%
The Construction sector showed an annual increase of 15.6% in 2017 and between 2012 and 2017 enterprise births increased by 93.9%

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
2012	2070	2817	2902	10106	711
2013	910	2497	3338	9249	510
2014	1276	3663	2850	11157	437
2015	1704	4376	3333	13211	450
2016	1571	5186	3410	13658	557
2017	1348	5441	3285	12988	559

The largest number of persons engaged in enterprise births in 2017 with 12,988 persons was in the Services sector
This was followed by the Construction sector with 5,441 persons engaged
The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 559 persons engaged in new enterprise births in 2017

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
2012	957	3584	2955	8143	562
2013	1060	3803	3217	9320	887
2014	898	3019	2662	8257	502
2015	961	3163	2671	8515	635
2016	849	3154	2382	7466	412

The number of enterprise deaths decreased across all sectors from 2015 to 2016
The Services sector had the highest number of deaths in 2016 with 7,466 enterprises ceasing activity
The Construction sector also accounted for a large proportion (22.1%) of total deaths in 2016 with 3,154 enterprises ceasing
The largest annual percentage decrease for enterprise deaths in 2016 was in the Financial and Insurance sector which decreased from 635 enterprise deaths in 2015 to 412 enterprise deaths in 2016, a decrease of 35.1%

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
2012	1400	3508	4558	10674	331
2013	1227	3544	4548	13111	427
2014	1169	3142	4127	13615	531
2015	1602	3245	4293	11462	415
2016	1553	3258	3759	10601	446

There were 19,616 persons engaged in enterprise deaths in 2016
The Services sector accounted for the largest decrease in the number of persons engaged resulting from enterprise deaths in 2016 with 10,601 employees
There were 3,258 persons engaged in enterprises that ceased trading in the Construction sector in 2016
The Financial and Insurance sector showed the largest annual increase in the number of persons engaged in enterprise deaths in 2016, increasing from 415 persons in 2015 to 446 persons in 2016

	2012 births	2013 births	2014 births	2015 births	2016 births
Year of birth	15080	13824	16257	18100	19249
Survived 1 year	13256	11708	13952	15133	16687
Survived 2 years	11692	10938	12685	14532
Survived 3 years	10931	10141	12220
Survived 4 years	10135	9756
Survived 5 years	9979

All enterprise births were monitored for the years 2012 to 2016 to assess their survival rate and the resulting effect on employment
The one year survival rate which relates to enterprises born in one year and still active in the next year, decreased from 2012 to 2016 from 87.9% to 86.7%
There were 15,080 new enterprise births in 2012, with 9,979 of these still active in reference year 2017, a 66.2% survival rate

	2012 births	2013 births	2014 births	2015 births	2016 births
Year of birth	18606	16505	19383	23073	24382
Survived 1 year	15683	14428	16837	19674	21094
Survived 2 years	14800	14102	15559	18891
Survived 3 years	14082	14436	15006
Survived 4 years	14417	12063
Survived 5 years	14151

There were 18,606 persons engaged in enterprise births in 2012, of which three quarters or 14,151 persons were still engaged in 2017
The one year survival rate for persons engaged in enterprise births from 2012 to 2016 increased from 84.3% to 86.5%
The two year survival rate for persons engaged increased slightly from 79.5% in 2014 to 81.9% in 2017
The largest number of persons engaged by year of birth was in 2016 with 24,382

2.1 Number of enterprise births and associated persons engaged by sector, 2012 to 2017

2.2 Number of enterprise deaths and associated persons engaged by sector, 2012 to 2016

2.3 Number of enterprise survivals and associated persons engaged by sector, 2012 to 2016

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Table 2.1 Number of enterprise births and associated persons engaged by sector, 2012 to 2017
	Births							Persons engaged
	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	Total	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	Total
Industry	925	968	1,110	1,186	1,329	1,409	6,927	2,070	910	1,276	1,704	1,571	1,348	8,879
Construction	2,757	2,473	3,526	4,226	4,623	5,345	22,950	2,817	2,497	3,663	4,376	5,186	5,441	23,980
Distribution	2,704	2,304	2,468	2,573	2,848	2,933	15,830	2,902	3,338	2,850	3,333	3,410	3,285	19,118
Services	8,174	7,441	8,735	9,572	9,983	11,330	55,235	10,106	9,249	11,157	13,211	13,658	12,988	70,369
Financial and Insurance	519	639	418	544	466	1,223	3,809	711	510	437	450	557	559	3,224
Total Business Economy	15,080	13,824	16,256	18,100	19,249	22,241	104,750	18,606	16,505	19,383	23,073	24,382	23,621	125,570
Source: CSO Business Demography
Totals may differ due to rounding.

Table 2.2 Number of enterprise deaths and associated persons engaged by sector, 2012 to 2016
	Enterprise deaths						Persons engaged in enterprise deaths
	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	Total	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	Total
Industry	957	1,060	898	961	849	4,725	1,400	1,227	1,169	1,602	1,553	6,951
Construction	3,584	3,803	3,019	3,163	3,154	16,723	3,508	3,544	3,142	3,245	3,258	16,697
Distribution	2,955	3,217	2,662	2,671	2,382	13,887	4,558	4,548	4,127	4,293	3,759	21,285
Services	8,143	9,320	8,257	8,515	7,466	41,701	10,674	13,111	13,615	11,462	10,601	59,463
Financial and Insurance	562	887	502	635	412	2,998	331	427	531	415	446	2,150
Total Business Economy	16,201	18,287	15,337	15,944	14,262	80,031	20,471	22,857	22,584	21,018	19,616	106,546
Source: CSO Business Demography
Totals may differ due to rounding.

Table 2.3 Number of enterprise survivals and associated persons engaged, 2012 to 2016
	Enterprise survivals							Persons engaged in enterprise survivals
		Survived							Survived
Year	Enterprise Births	1 years	2 years	3 years	4 years	5 years	Year	Enterprise Births	1 years	2 years	3 years	4 years	5 years
2012	15,080	13,256	11,692	10,931	10,135	9,979	2012	18,606	15,683	14,800	14,082	14,417	14,151
2013	13,824	11,708	10,938	10,141	9,756		2013	16,505	14,428	14,102	14,436	12,063
2014	16,257	13,952	12,685	12,220			2014	19,383	16,837	15,559	15,006
2015	18,100	15,133	14,532				2015	23,073	19,674	18,891
2016	19,249	16,687					2016	24,382	21,094
Source: CSO Business Demography

Business In Ireland 2017

Enterprise Births, Survivals and Deaths

Enterprise Births, Survivals and Deaths

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