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Overview

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Business in Ireland is an annual thematic e-publication released by the Central Statistics Office of Ireland. This publication outlines the key statistics for the Irish Business Economy in 2018.

Business Demography data (largely based on administrative data from the Revenue Commissioners) is used to analyse the number of enterprises and employment across the five sectors of Industry, Construction, Distribution, Services and Financial & Insurance. This data is combined with the Structural Business Surveys, which are run annually by the CSO.

This publication provides answers to many key policy questions, such as:

♦ the impact of SMEs on the Irish Business Economy

♦ the impact of foreign owned enterprises

♦ how concentrated is business economy value added creation in Ireland

♦ typical survival rates for new enterprises

Acknowledgement

The CSO would like to acknowledge and thank the many enterprises who completed their enterprise survey questionnaires. Without this extensive cooperation, this publication and a range of other important statistics would not be available. The CSO also wishes to acknowledge the contribution of the Revenue Commissioners, as the information provided by Revenue to the CSO is of critical importance in compiling these necessary outputs. All such administrative data provided is only used for statistical purposes. We think you will see the fruits of this data sharing in this very informative publication.

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X-axis labelLarge (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Active enterprises0.299.8
Persons engaged32.567.5
Turnover53.846.2
GVA62.737.3
  • Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) accounted for almost one third (32.5%) of all persons engaged in 2018 and just 0.2% of the total number of enterprises
  • SMEs (<250 persons engaged) accounted for 99.8% of the total number of enterprises in 2018 and 67.5% of all persons engaged
  • SMEs generated 46.2% of total Turnover in the Business Economy and 37.3% of Gross Value Added was attributed to these enterprises
DeathsBirths
20131828713824
20141533716256
20151594418100
20161462919249
20171601122241
201814458
  • The total number of enterprises that ceased trading during 2017 was 16,011, an increase of 9.4% compared to 2016 levels
  • Enterprise deaths decreased by 12.4% in the period 2013 to 2017
  • In 2018, enterprise births showed an annual decrease of 35.0% to 14,458
  • The number of new births increased by 4.6% in 2018 when compared to 2013
  • The lowest number of enterprise births between 2013 and 2018 occurred in 2013 when 13,824 enterprises were established
X-axis labelIrish-ownedAll enterprises
Micro
(<10 persons engaged)
7680793349
Small
(10-49 persons engaged)
4863359126
Medium
(50-249 persons engaged)
5491278099
Large
(250+ persons engaged)
90854313878
All size classes67045147504
  • Gross Value Added (GVA) per person engaged averaged €147,504 for all enterprises in the Irish non-financial Business Economy in 2018, while GVA in Irish-owned enterprises averaged €67,045
  • Small enterprises (10-49 persons engaged) reported GVA per person in 2018 of €59,126, while Medium enterprises (50-249 persons engaged) reported GVA per person of €78,099 
  • GVA per person engaged for Large Irish-owned enterprises was €90,854 but increased to €313,878 when Foreign-owned Large enterprises were included
X-axis labelTop 50 by GVATop 50 by employment
Gross operating surplus72.839.8
GVA55.932.9
Turnover43.327.1
  • Industry stands out in terms of its reliance upon a small number of high value added enterprises. The 50 largest enterprises in Industry by Gross Value Added (GVA) accounted for 78.9% of total Turnover, 87.8% of total GVA and 96.2% of Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) for the sector
  • The 50 largest enterprises in the Business Economy by GVA accounted for 43.3% of total Turnover, 55.9% of total GVA and 72.8% of GOS. These Top 50 enterprises accounted for 5.3% of all persons engaged
  • The 50 largest enterprises in the Business Economy by employment accounted for 27.1% of total Turnover, 32.9% of total GVA and 39.8% of Gross Operating Surplus

 Figure 1.5 Irish MNEs abroad and foreign MNEs in Ireland, 2018

Figure 1.5 Irish MNEs abroad and foreign MNEs in Ireland, 2018

  • In 2018, Irish multinationals had 998,101 persons engaged in Foreign affiliates and generated Turnover of €232.6 billion
  • By contrast, Foreign multinationals had 403,536 persons engaged in affiliates in Ireland and generated Turnover of €478.8 billion
Gross Value Added
Ireland62.8
Hungary50
Slovakia48.1
Romania44.2
Luxembourg43.7
Czech Republic42.9
Latvia33.7
Malta32.4
Bulgaria32.2
Poland30.5
Netherlands29.7
Croatia28.9
Lithuania28.3
United Kingdom27.5
Austria27.3
Slovenia27.2
Sweden27.2
Germany 27
EU2826.1
Belgium24.7
Estonia24.7
Portugal23.8
Spain23.2
Finland23
Denmark22.2
France17.1
Greece16.5
Italy15.9
Cyprus13.2
  • Ireland had the highest Gross Value Added (GVA) contributions from Foreign-owned enterprises to the overall non-financial economy in the EU28 for 2017 with 62.8% of total GVA
  • This compares to the EU28 average of 26.1% for 2017
  • Other high-ranking countries included Hungary (50.0%), Slovakia (48.1%) and Romania (44.2%) respectively
1.1 Main indicators for all business sectors, 2018

The individual surveys used to compile this report can be accessed here;

Go to next chapter >>> Enterprise Births, Survivals and Deaths