Your feedback can help us improve and enhance our services to the public. Tell us what matters to you in our online Customer Satisfaction Survey.
The data in this publication is based on Services Trade by Enterprise data (STEC) which is supplied by the CSO to Eurostat on an annual basis. It provides data on the size class, ownership and NACE activity sector of enterprises engaged in the export and import of services in Ireland.
For more detailed methodological information see the ‘Compilers Guide for statistics on Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristics (STEC)’.
Services trade values included in STEC are defined according to the Balance of Payments Manual - 6th edition (BPM6) and the EC BOP regulation 555/2012, and according to the most recent version of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services (MSITS 2010) developed by the inter-agency task force on statistics of international trade in services.
For more information on the BOP methodology, see International Accounts Q1 2022 Background Notes or Background Notes - updated March 2018 (PDF 240KB) .
The size of an enterprise is measured as the number of employees. In this publication the following size classifications were used:
| Size class | Number of Employees |
| Small | 10-49 employees |
| Medium | 50-249 employees |
| Large | 250+ employees |
| Unknown size |
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the publication consist of enterprises in both the small and medium category.
The type of ownership of an enterprise identifies whether an enterprise is domestic or foreign controlled. A domestic enterprise is defined as either domestic indigenous or domestic multinational (with foreign control of less than 50%). A foreign controlled enterprise is defined as having foreign control of more than 50%.
| Type of ownership | Control (%) |
| Domestic | Enterprises with foreign control < 50% |
| Foreign | Enterprises with foreign control > 50% |
The NACE sectors used to classify the enterprises in this publication are as follows:
| Sector | NACE Rev. 2 |
| Manufacturing (C) | 10-33 |
| Wholesale & retail trade (G) | 45-47 |
| Information and Communication (J) | 58-63 |
| Financial & insurance activities (K) | 64-66 |
| Professional & scientific activities (M) | 69-75 |
| Administrative & support services activities (N) | 77-82 |
| Other activities (A,B,D-E,F,H,I,L,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U) |
For more detail on NACE activity codes, see
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.