In 2020, Gross Value Added (GVA), which represents the value of goods and services produced in the economy, increased by 10.1% to €275.8 billion. GVA increased by 18.8% when compared with 2018.
Total Turnover in the Structural Business Economy increased by 1.0% to €816.0 billion between 2019 and 2020.
The number of persons engaged fell by 6.7% (114,614) to 1,598,643 in 2020.
The average GVA per person engaged in the Structural Business Economy in 2020 was €172,500.
The number of enterprises in the Structural Business Economy increased by 2.1% from 285,466 in 2019 to 291,489 enterprises in 2020.
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Statistician's Comment
This release provides details of individual surveys in the Structural Business Economy i.e. Census of Industrial Production, Annual Services Inquiry, and Building & Construction Inquiry. It also analyses these sectors by size class of enterprise, area of economic activity, and nationality of ownership. This release covers the calendar year 2020, which coincided with the arrival of COVID-19 in Ireland in March 2020.
Industry
Commenting on the Industry section of this release, Eamonn Cleary, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said "Turnover in the Industrial sector in 2020 increased by 4.0% to €299.2 billion.
Gross Value Added (GVA), when measured at factor cost, increased by 12.0% in 2020, to €128.4 billion. However, Large Industrial enterprises (250+ persons engaged) experienced a much larger annual increase in GVA at 13.0%, when compared with SMEs (<250 persons engaged) which grew by 5.4%.
There were 19,171 Industrial enterprises in 2020, an increase of 3.1%, and the largest total since the current system of sectoral classification commenced in 2008. However, the number of persons engaged in Industrial enterprises declined by 1.4% to 260,660 in 2020."
Distribution and Services
Commenting on the Distribution and Services section of this release, Stephanie Kelleher, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said "In 2020, the number of persons engaged in the Distribution sector decreased by 4.5% to 372,853 persons, while there was also a decrease of 4.7% in Turnover to €183.5 billion. GVA increased by €1.2 billion (4.6%). GVA in Large enterprises increased by 11.8%, while GVA in SMEs increased by 1.5%.
More than half of all enterprises (55.9%) and one half of all persons engaged (50.5%) in the Structural Business Economy in 2020 were in the Services sector. Persons engaged in Services decreased by 10.3% from 900,086 in 2019 to 807,781 in 2020, while there was an annual increase in both Turnover (1.6%) and GVA (10.9%). Between 2019 and 2020, GVA for SMEs increased by 7.5% to €54.6 billion, while GVA for Large enterprises increased by 14.3% to €57.6 billion."
Building & Construction
Commenting on the Building & Construction section of this release, Shane O'Sullivan, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said "Turnover in the Building & Construction sector increased by 4.1% to €29.2 billion in 2020.
GVA in the sector declined by 7.2% to €8.0 billion in 2020. SMEs recorded a fall of 6.2% in GVA to €6.7 billion, while Large enterprises recorded a greater decline of 11.9% in GVA to €1.3 billion. The average GVA per person engaged in the Construction sector fell 6.6% from €54,700 in 2019 to €51,000 in 2020.
The number of persons engaged in the Construction sector decreased by 0.6% from 158,227 in 2019 to 157,349 in 2020. The number of persons engaged in Large Construction enterprises grew by 6.5% in 2020, while the number of persons engaged in SMEs deceased by 1.2%. SMEs accounted for 91.6% of total persons engaged in the Building & Construction sector. There was a 5.9% growth in the number of enterprises in the Building & Construction sector in 2020 compared to a 2.7% increase in 2019."