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Business in Ireland 2020

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

SMEs accounted for 68.4% of all persons engaged in the business economy

Online ISSN: 2009-6895

CSO statistical publication, 02 November 2022, 11am

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.

Small and medium 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.

The Financial and Insurance sector is excluded from this chapter, while the Other Services Activities sector (NACE Rev.2 - R92, R93, S95 and S96) is included. Accordingly, all the measures below relate to the non-financial business economy only (which encompasses the broad sectors of Industry, Services, Distribution, and Construction).

Key Statistics on SMEs

SMEs (<250 persons engaged) accounted for 99.8% of the total number of enterprises in 2020
SMEs generated 41.9% of total turnover in the business economy in 2020 and 34.5% of gross value added (GVA) was attributed to these enterprises
Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) generated 58.1% of total turnover and 65.5% of total GVA in the business economy in 2020

X-axis label	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Active enterprises	0.2	99.8
Persons engaged	31.6	68.4
Turnover	58.1	41.9
GVA	65.5	34.5

Percentage Breakdown of Active Enterprises

Micro (<10 persons engaged), small (10-49 persons engaged) and medium (50-249 persons engaged) enterprises in the business economy accounted for almost all of the enterprises in the business economy in 2020, representing 92.6%, 6.1% and 1.1% of enterprises respectively

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Active enterprises
Micro (<10)	92.6
Small (10-49)	6.1
Medium (50-249)	1.1
Large (250+)	0.2

Percentage Breakdown of Persons Engaged

Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) employed over one third (31.6%) of all persons engaged in the Irish business economy in 2020 (504,896)
SMEs (<250 persons engaged) had 1,093,747 persons engaged in the Irish business economy in 2020, which was over two-thirds of the total persons engaged (68.4%)

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Persons engaged
Micro (<10)	28.1
Small (10-49)	21.5
Medium (50-249)	18.8
Large (250+)	31.6

Percentage Breakdown of GVA

Large enterprises accounted for the majority of the business economy GVA in Ireland in 2020, at €180.5bn, or 65.5% of the total
Micro, small and medium enterprises generated 16.1%, 8.2% and 10.3% respectively of total GVA

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	GVA
Micro (<10)	16.1
Small (10-49)	8.2
Medium (50-249)	10.3
Large (250+)	65.5

Percentage Breakdown of Turnover

Large enterprises accounted for almost 60% (58.1%) of turnover generated in the business economy, while SMEs accounted for the remainder (41.9%)

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Turnover
Micro (<10)	16.3
Small (10-49)	12.7
Medium (50-249)	12.9
Large (250+)	58.1

Percentage Share of Persons Engaged

The Construction sector had the largest share of its persons engaged in SMEs in 2020, at 91.6%
Seven out of every ten persons engaged in the Services sector (69.6%) and the Distribution sector (69.5%) were employed in SMEs
The Industry sector reported almost an equal number of persons engaged in large enterprises (50.7%) as in SMEs (49.3%)

X-axis label	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Construction	8.4	91.6
Services	30.4	69.6
Distribution	30.5	69.5
Industry	50.7	49.3

Percentage Share of GVA

In the Construction sector 84.0% of total GVA was produced by SMEs in 2020
Just 12.2% of GVA in the Industrial sector was produced by SMEs in 2020
SMEs accounted for 67.3% and 48.7% of all GVA in the Distribution and Services sectors respectively

	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Construction	16	84
Distribution	32.7	67.3
Services	51.3	48.7
Industry	87.8	12.2

Percentage Share of Turnover

SMEs in Construction generated the largest percentage share of turnover (83.4%) followed by Distribution with 75.7%
Large enterprises generated 82.5% of Industrial turnover output, while in the Services sector large enterprises produced almost 60% (58.4%) of total turnover

	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Construction	16.6	83.4
Distribution	24.3	75.7
Services	58.4	41.6
Industry	82.5	17.5

Sectoral Breakdown of SMEs by Number of Active Enterprises

Over half (55.9%) of all SMEs in the Irish business economy in 2020 were in the Services sector
The Construction sector made up the second largest contributor to the number of Irish SMEs, at 21.5% of the total
The Industry sector accounted for just 6.5% of all SMEs

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
Percentage of active enterprises	6.5	21.5	16	55.9

Sectoral Breakdown of SMEs by Persons Engaged

The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of persons engaged in SMEs in 2020 (51.4%). The lowest proportion was in the Industry sector with 11.8% of persons engaged
Having accounted for 21.5% of all active SMEs, the Construction sector accounted for just 13.2% of persons engaged in SMEs
SMEs in the Distribution sector accounted for 23.7% of all persons engaged in SMEs and 16.0% of all active SMEs in 2020

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
Percentage of persons engaged	11.8	13.2	23.7	51.4

Sectoral Breakdown of SMEs by GVA

Enterprises in the Services sector accounted for 57.4% of all SMEs' gross value added (GVA)
The Distribution and Industry sectors accounted for 19.1% and 16.4% of all SMEs' GVA respectively
SMEs in the Construction sector recorded the lowest proportion of all SMEs' gross value added at 7.1%

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
Percentage of Gross Value Added	16.4	7.1	19.1	57.4

3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2020

3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2020

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Table 3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2020
					No.
Class size	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services¹	Total Business Economy
Active Enterprises
Micro (<10)	16,681	60,553	40,623	152,194	270,051
Small (10-49)	1,705	1,891	5,276	8,815	17,687
Medium (50-249)	602	196	783	1,557	3,138
All SMEs (<250)	18,988	62,640	46,682	162,566	290,876
Large	183	24	110	296	613
All sizes	19,171	62,664	46,792	162,862	291,489
Persons Engaged
Micro (<10)	28,727	91,798	86,855	242,140	449,520
Small (10-49)	36,094	35,610	102,467	168,872	343,043
Medium (50-249)	63,699	16,718	69,826	150,941	301,184
All SMEs (<250)	128,520	144,126	259,148	561,953	1,093,747
Large	132,140	13,223	113,705	245,828	504,896
All sizes	260,660	157,349	372,853	807,781	1,598,643
*Source:* CSO Structural Business Statistics
¹ Services includes NACE divisions R92, R93, S95, S96 and excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K).

Table 3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2020
					€m
Class size	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services¹	Total Business Economy
Turnover
Micro (<10)	16,080	14,272	44,756	57,692	132,800
Small (10-49)	8,665	6,238	58,538	30,244	103,685
Medium (50-249)	27,709	3,832	35,577	38,422	105,540
All SMEs (<250)²	52,453	24,342	138,870	126,358	342,023
Large	246,795	4,854	44,625	177,690	473,964
All sizes²	299,249	29,196	183,495	304,048	815,988
Gross value added
Micro (<10)	3,495	3,842	5,385	31,711	44,434
Small (10-49)	3,600	1,906	6,937	10,066	22,510
Medium (50-249)	8,544	997	5,908	12,858	28,307
All SMEs (<250)²	15,640	6,746	18,230	54,636	95,252
Large	112,776	1,285	8,854	57,600	180,515
All sizes²	128,416	8,030	27,085	112,236	275,767
*Source:* CSO Structural Business Statistics
¹ Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and includes Services NACE divisions of R92, R93, S95, S96.
² Totals may differ due to rounding.