Structural Business Statistics 2020

• Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for 28.3% of total persons engaged in 2020 but accounted for 72.8% (€200.8 billion) of total GVA in the Structural Business Economy.
• Industry was the sector with the largest proportion of it's persons engaged in Foreign-owned enterprises at 46.7%.
• More than 7 out of every 10 persons engaged (71.7%) in the Structural Business Economy in 2020, were engaged in Irish-owned enterprises.
• Building & Construction had the highest proportion of persons engaged in Irish-owned enterprises at 96.4%.
• Large Foreign-owned enterprises accounted for almost three-fifths (58.9%) of all GVA in 2020. See Table 5.1.

Irish-owned versus Foreign-owned enterprises

Irish-owned enterprises had almost 1,147,000 persons engaged and produced Gross Value Added of €75.0 billion in 2020.

Foreign-owned enterprises had almost 452,000 persons engaged or 28.3% of the total number of persons engaged in the Structural Business Economy. However, these Foreign-owned enterprises produced the vast majority of Gross Value Added at €201.0 billion or 72.8% of total GVA in 2020.

SMEs versus Large enterprises

SMEs (<250 persons engaged), had almost seven out of every 10 persons engaged in the Structural Business Economy.

Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged), accounted for 31.6% or almost 505,000 of all persons engaged.

Comparisons

The majority of GVA in Industry (87.6%) was produced by Foreign-owned enterprises. Large enterprises in Industry accounted for 87.8% of total Industrial GVA.

Irish-owned enterprises produced 12.4% of GVA in Industry, 48.0% in Distribution, 34.3% in Services and 94.5% in Construction.

Industry was the sector with the largest proportion of it's persons engaged in Foreign-owned enterprises at 46.7%.

Of all sectors, Construction had the lowest level of its persons engaged in Foreign-owned enterprises, with just 5,642 compared to 151,707 persons engaged in Irish-owned enterprises. Within Construction, the majority of persons engaged in Foreign-owned enterprises (69.4%) were employed in Large enterprises.