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For more information on this release:
E-mail: business_stats@cso.ie Eamonn Cleary (+353) 21 453 5483 Stephanie Kelleher (+353) 21 453 5123 Seán Clancy (+353) 21 453 5500
For general information on CSO statistics:
information@cso.ie (+353) 21 453 5000 On-line ISSN 2565-5337
CSO statistical release, , 11am

Structural Business Statistics

2019

Structural Business Statistics1, 2017 - 2019
     Percentage change
  2017201820192018 - 20192017 - 2019
Enterprises No. 283,244281,408285,4661.4%0.8%
Persons Engaged No. 1,522,1821,573,2711,713,2578.9%12.6%
Turnover €m667,699734,328813,22410.7%21.8%
Gross Value Added2€m209,120232,065252,9139.0%20.9%
1Structural Business Statistics includes all Industrial, Distribution and Services & Building and Construction enterprises in Ireland.
2Gross Value Added is GVA at factor cost (See Background Notes).

GVA in the Structural Business Economy increased 9.0% to €252.9 billion in 2019

Figure 1: Turnover for Structural Business Statistics, 2017 - 2019
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  • Gross Value Added (GVA), which represents the value of goods and services produced in the economy, was €252.9 billion in 2019. This was a 9.0% annual increase and a 20.9% increase since 2017.
  • Total turnover in the Structural Business Economy increased by 10.7% between 2018 and 2019, bringing the value to €813.2 billion in 2019.
  • The number of persons engaged rose by 8.9% in 2019 to 1,713,257 persons, an increase of 139,986 persons. This annual increase was almost three times the increase between 2017 and 2018 of 51,089 persons.
  • The number of enterprises in the Structural Business Economy increased by 1.4% to 285,466 in 2019. 

See Headline Table and Figure 1.

This release provides details of individual surveys in the Structural Business Economy i.e. Census of Industrial Production, Annual Services Inquiry & Building and Construction Inquiry. It also analyses these sectors by size class of enterprise and nationality of ownership.

NOTE: An error was detected in our Business Demography 2019 data, which was published in July 2021. The issue has been addressed and the revised release with corrected data was published Monday, 20 September.

Industry

Table 1 Industrial sector key variables, 2017 - 20191
     Percentage change
  2017201820192018 - 2019
Industry (B-E)     
Enterprises No. 18,81718,70318,599-0.6%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)18,63918,52718,413-0.6%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)1781761865.7%
Persons Engaged No. 242,966250,635264,3985.5%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)125,596128,787133,6823.8%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)117,370121,848130,7167.3%
Turnover €m238,601268,289287,6827.2%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 44,32847,00651,69110.0%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 194,273221,283235,9916.6%
Gross Value Added€m101,892107,205114,6466.9%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)14,28612,30814,83920.6%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 87,60694,89799,8075.2%
1Totals may differ due to rounding.
Open in Excel: Structural Business Statistics 2019 Table 1 (XLS 11KB)
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Turnover in the Industrial sector increased by 7.2% in 2019

  • Turnover in the Industrial sector increased in 2019 to €287.7 billion, an annual increase of 7.2%.
  • The number of persons engaged in Industrial Production in Ireland in 2019 increased by 5.5% to 264,398.
  • In 2019, the number of Industrial enterprises in Ireland declined for the second consecutive year, to a total of 18,599.  This is a 1.2% decrease on the total for 2017.
  • Large industrial enterprises recorded annual increases in persons engaged (7.3%), turnover (6.6%), number of enterprises (5.7%) and Gross Value Added (5.2%) in 2019.
  • Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Industrial sector also recorded an increase in persons engaged (3.8%), turnover (10.0%) and GVA (20.6%) in 2019.  There was a decline of 0.6% in the number of Industrial SMEs. See Table 1 and PxStat tables.
X-axis labelTurnoverGross Value Added
2017238.601101.892
2018268.289107.205
2019287.682114.646
  • Gross Value Added (GVA) for Industrial enterprises increased by 6.9% in 2019 to €114.6 billion when measured at factor cost.
  • Turnover in the Industrial sector increased by 7.2% in 2019 to €287.7 billion.  This is the largest annual total since the current data series commenced in 2008. See Figure 2 and PxStat tables.
Large (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
2017117370125596
2018121848128787
2019130716133682
  • The number of persons engaged in Industrial enterprises increased by 5.5% in 2019 to 264,398.  This is the largest total since the current data series commenced in 2008.
  • Almost half (49.4%) of persons engaged in Industrial enterprises in 2019 were associated with Large enterprises. See Figure 3 and PxStat tables.
X-axis labelLarge (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
201787.60614.286
201894.89712.308
201999.80714.839
  • The rate of increase in GVA in 2019 was greater for Industrial SMEs (20.6%) than for Large enterprises (5.2%).
  • Large enterprises accounted for 87.1% of all GVA for Industrial enterprises. See Figure 4 and PxStat tables.

Distribution and Services

Table 2 Distribution sector and Services sector key variables, 2017 - 20191
     Percentage change
  2017201820192018 - 2019
Distribution (G)     
Enterprises No. 48,59847,78946,786-2.1%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)48,49847,68046,671-2.1%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)1001091155.5%
Persons Engaged No. 367,405374,968390,5464.2%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)264,684267,160277,4823.9%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)102,721107,808113,0644.9%
Turnover €m186,677182,394192,6175.6%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 158,820152,308147,389-3.2%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 27,85730,08545,22850.3%
Gross Value Added€m22,39423,46525,88410.3%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)17,15818,33217,964-2.0%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 5,2375,1337,92054.3%
Services (H-N, R92,R93,S95,S96 excluding K)     
Enterprises No. 158,574157,290160,9062.3%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)158,311156,992160,5532.3%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)26329835318.5%
Persons Engaged No. 774,572803,147900,08612.1%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)569,159579,576629,8508.7%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)205,413223,571270,23620.9%
Turnover €m217,552254,492299,22417.6%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 109,517114,141126,41410.8%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 108,036140,351172,81023.1%
Gross Value Added€m75,60790,718101,20711.6%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)40,81246,40750,8069.5%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 34,79544,31150,40113.7%
1Totals may differ due to rounding.
Open in Excel: Structural Business Statistics 2019 Table 2 (XLS 11KB)
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Distribution

Persons engaged in the Distribution sector increased by 4.2% in 2019

  • The number of persons engaged in the Distribution sector increased in 2019 to 390,546 persons, an annual increase of 4.2%
  • The number of enterprises in the Distribution sector decreased by 2.1% to 46,786 enterprises in 2019.
  • While there was a decrease of 2.1% in the number of SMEs in 2019 to 46,671 enterprises, the number of Large enterprises increased by 5.5% to 115.
  • Like previous years, almost all (99.8%) of enterprises in the Distribution sector were SMEs with less than 250 persons engaged.
  • The average GVA per person engaged in the Distribution sector increased from €62,600 in 2018 to €66,300 in 2019.
  • The average number of persons engaged per enterprise in 2019 in the Distribution sector was 8.  SMEs had on average 6 persons engaged and a Large enterprise had an average of 983 persons engaged. See Table 2 and PxStat tables.
X-axis labelTurnoverGross Value Added
2017186.67722.394
2018182.39423.465
2019192.61725.884
  • Turnover increased to €192.6 billion in the Distribution sector in 2019, an annual increase of 5.6%. 
  • GVA increased by 10.3% in 2019, up by €2.4 billion compared to 2018.
  • The Turnover to GVA ratio for the Distribution sector in 2019 was 7.4 which was a decrease compared to the 2018 ratio of 7.8.  See Figure 5 and PxStat table ANA13
Large (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
2017102721264684
2018107808267160
2019113064277482
  • There was an increase of 15,578 persons engaged in the Distribution sector in 2019.
  • An increase in persons engaged in 2019 in the Distribution sector was seen in both SMEs (3.9%) and in Large enterprises (4.9%). The number of persons engaged in SMEs grew by over 10,300 and by over 5,200 in Large enterprises compared to 2018.
  • SMEs accounted for 71.0% of persons engaged in the Distribution sector. See Figure 6 and PxStat table ANA09.
X-axis labelLarge (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
20175.23717.158
20185.13318.332
20197.9217.964
  • In 2019 GVA in the Distribution sector increased by 10.3% to €25.9 billion.
  • SMEs accounted for 69.4% of total GVA for the Distribution sector in 2019.
  • Large enterprises showed an increase of €2.8 billion in GVA. See Figure 7 and PxStat Table ANA09.

Services

In 2019 the number of enterprises in the Services Sector increased by 2.3%

  • The number of enterprises in the Services sector increased by 2.3% to 160,906 in 2019.
  • The number of SMEs increased by 2.3% while Large enterprises increased by 18.5%.
  • Like the Distribution sector, 99.8% of enterprises in the Services sector in 2019 were SMEs (less than 250 persons engaged).
  • The average GVA per person engaged in 2019 was €112,400 in the Services sector, slightly down from 2018 (€113,000).
  • The average number of persons engaged in a Services enterprise (6 persons engaged) was less than in the Distribution sector (8 persons engaged). SMEs had an average of 4 persons engaged while Large enterprises an average of 766 persons engaged in 2019.
  • There were 900,086 persons engaged in the Services sector in 2019, an increase of 96,939 compared to 2018. This represented an annual increase of 12.1%.
  • SMEs in the Services sector had 50,274 more persons engaged in 2019 than in 2018, an increase of 8.7%. See Table 2 and Pxstat Tables.
X-axis labelTurnoverGross Value Added
2017217.55275.607
2018254.49290.718
2019299.224101.207
  • Turnover in the Services sector increased by €44.7 billion in 2019, an increase of 17.6% on the previous year.
  • GVA reached €101.2 billion in 2019, an increase of 11.6% on the previous year. 
  • The ratio of Turnover to GVA was 3 for the Services sector.  See Figure 8 and PxStat Table ANA13.
Large (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
2017205413569159
2018223571579576
2019270236629850
  • The number of persons engaged in Large enterprises in the Services sector increased by 46,665 which was an increase of 20.9% compared with the previous year.
  • Seven in ten persons engaged in the Services sector were employed in SMEs in 2019.  See Figure 9 and PxStat Table ANA09.
X-axis labelLarge (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
201734.79540.812
201844.31146.407
201950.40150.806
  • Services sector SMEs generated a GVA of €50.8 billion in 2019 while Large enterprises generated €50.4 billion.
  • GVA in SMEs increased by €4.4 billion, or 9.5%, in 2019 compared to 2018.
  • Large enterprises in 2019 showed an increase of 13.7% in GVA, rising by €6.1 billion. See Figure 10 and PxStat Table ANA09.

Building and Construction

Table 3 Building and Construction sector key variables, 2017 - 20191
     Percentage change
  2017201820192018 - 2019
Building and Construction (F)     
Enterprises No. 57,25557,62659,1752.7%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 57,23857,60559,1502.7%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 17212519.0%
Persons Engaged No. 137,239144,521158,2279.5%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 128,303133,932145,8138.9%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 8,93610,58912,41417.2%
Turnover €m24,86929,15333,70115.6%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 22,49225,55828,84812.9%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 2,3763,5954,85235.0%
Gross Value Added€m9,22710,67711,1764.7%
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged) 8,4169,4369,7203.0%
                   Large (250+ persons engaged) 8111,2411,45617.3%
1Totals may differ due to rounding.
Open in Excel: Structural Business Statistics 2019 Table 3 (XLS 11KB)
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Turnover in Building and Construction sector increased by 15.6% in 2019

  • Construction turnover increased by 15.6% to €33.7 billion and Construction GVA increased by 4.7% to €11.2 billion in 2019.
  • The number of persons engaged in Building and Construction in Ireland increased by 9.5% to 158,227. 
  • The average GVA per person engaged in the Construction sector decreased from €73,900 in 2018 to €70,600 in 2019.
  • In 2019 the number of Construction enterprises increased by 2.7% from 57,626 in 2018 to 59,175 in 2019. See Table 3 and PxStat
X-axis labelTurnoverGross Value Added
201724.8699.227
201829.15310.677
201933.70111.176
  • Large Construction enterprises recorded a 35.0% increase in turnover and a 17.3% increase in GVA in 2019.
  • SMEs in the Construction Sector showed increases of 12.9% in turnover and 3.0% in GVA in 2019. See Figure 11 and PxStat Table BAA12.
X-axis labelLarge (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
20178936128303
201810589133932
201912414145813
  • Persons engaged in SMEs accounted for 92.2% of total persons engaged in the Construction sector.
  • Persons engaged in Large enterprises increased by 17.2% from 10,589 in 2018 to 12,414 in 2019. See Figure 12 and PxStat Table BAA13.
X-axis labelLarge (250+ persons engaged)SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
20170.8118.416
20181.2419.436
20191.4569.72
  • Gross Value Added for SMEs rose by 3.0% to €9.7 billion in 2019 from €9.4 billion in the previous year.
  • Large enterprises reported an increase in GVA, which rose by 17.3% from €1.2 billion in 2018 to €1.5 billion in 2019. See Figure 13 and PxStat Table BAA13

Two thirds of GVA was produced by Foreign owned enterprises

Table 4 Breakdown of persons engaged and Gross Value Added by sector, nationality of ownership and size class, 20191
 Persons engagedGross Value Added
 No.€m
Industry - Irish owned147,04514,147
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)103,2606,975
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)43,7857,172
Industry - Foreign owned117,353100,499
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)30,4227,864
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)86,93192,635
Industry- Total264,398114,646
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)133,68214,839
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)130,71699,807
Distribution - Irish owned277,84511,857
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)242,66210,754
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)35,1831,103
Distribution - Foreign owned112,70114,027
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)34,8207,210
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)77,8816,817
Distribution - Total390,54625,884
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)277,48217,964
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)113,0647,920
Services - Irish owned706,44542,248
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)559,85033,104
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)146,5959,144
Services - Foreign owned193,64158,959
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)70,00017,702
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)123,64141,257
Services - Total900,086101,207
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)629,85050,806
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)270,23650,401
Building and construction - Irish owned147,13510,000
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)141,9069,104
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)5,229895
Building and construction - Foreign owned11,0921,176
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)3,907615
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)7,185561
Building and construction - Total158,22711,176
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)145,8139,720
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)12,4141,456
All sectors - Irish owned1,278,47078,252
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)1,047,67859,937
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)230,79218,314
All sectors - Foreign owned434,787174,661
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)139,14933,391
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)295,638141,270
All sectors - Total1,713,257252,913
   of which: SMEs (<250 persons engaged)1,186,82793,329
                   Large (250+ persons engaged)526,430159,584
1Totals may differ due to rounding.
Open in Excel: Structural Business Statistics 2019 Table 4 (XLS 11KB)
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  • Foreign owned enterprises accounted for 69.1% of total GVA in 2019, while Irish owned enterprises had 74.6% of persons engaged.
  • Irish owned SMEs in the Distribution sector accounted for 62.1% of persons engaged and produced 41.5% of GVA in this sector.
  • Industry had the lowest proportion of persons engaged and GVA in Irish-Owned enterprises with 55.6% of persons engaged and 12.3% of GVA.
  • Foreign owned enterprises in the Services sector had 21.5% of persons engaged but produced 58.3% of Services GVA in 2019.
  • Of the four sectors, Building and Construction had the highest concentration of Irish-Owned enterprises with 93.0% of persons engaged and 89.5% of GVA.
  • Foreign-owned Industrial enterprises accounted for 39.7% of the total GVA of the four sectors in 2019. See Table 4.
SMEs (<250 persons engaged)Large (250+ persons engaged)
Industry - Irish70.22329.777
Industry - Foreign25.92374.077
Distribution - Irish87.33712.663
Distribution - Foreign30.89669.104
Services- Irish79.24920.751
Services - Foreign36.14963.851
Building and Construction - Irish96.4463.554
Building and Construction - Foreign35.22464.776
All sectors - Irish81.94818.052
All sectors - Foreign32.00467.996
  • More than two thirds (70.2%) of employment in Irish owned Industrial enterprises was in SMEs in 2019.
  • The reverse is true of foreign owned Industrial enterprises, where almost three quarters (74.1%) of all persons engaged were employed in Large enterprises.
  • Foreign owned Distribution SMEs had 34,820 persons engaged which produced €7.2 billion GVA in 2019 equating to €207,100 GVA per person engaged.
  • Foreign owned Large enterprises in the Distribution sector had a GVA per person engaged of €87,500 in 2019.
  • Large foreign owned enterprises had the highest GVA per person engaged in the Services sector at €333,700 in 2019.
  • Almost two out of every three (62.2%) persons engaged in the Services sector were in an Irish owned SME in 2019.
  • Irish owned SMEs accounted for 96.4% of persons engaged in the Construction sector in 2019.
  • Almost two thirds, 64.8%, of employment in foreign owned Construction enterprises was in Large enterprises. See Figure 14.
SMEs (<250 persons engaged)Large (250+ persons engaged)
Industry - Irish49.30450.696
Industry - Foreign7.82592.175
Distribution - Irish90.6979.303
Distribution - Foreign51.40148.599
Services- Irish78.35621.644
Services - Foreign30.02469.976
Building and Construction - Irish91.0498.951
Building and Construction - Foreign52.29647.704
All sectors - Irish76.59623.404
All sectors - Foreign19.11880.882

Among Irish owned Construction enterprises, SMEs accounted for 91.0% of GVA

  • In the Industrial sector, Large enterprises generated 92.2% of GVA in foreign owned enterprises in 2019.
  • Irish owned Industrial enterprises were more evenly split, with 49.3% of GVA coming from SMEs and 50.7% generated by Large Industrial enterprises. 
  • In the Distribution sector, both Irish and Foreign owned SMEs contributed more GVA than their equivalent Large enterprises. Irish owned SMEs had 90.7% of Irish owned GVA compared to Foreign owned SMEs who accounted for 51.4% of GVA. 
  • In 2019 Irish owned Services SMEs produced €33.1 billion compared to €9.1 billion in Irish owned Large enterprises.  GVA in Foreign owned Service enterprises was dominated by Large enterprises (70.0%).
  • Among Irish owned Construction enterprises, SMEs accounted for 91.0% of GVA, with Large enterprises accounting for 9.0%.
  • For foreign owned Construction enterprises, SMEs accounted for 52.3% of GVA, with Large enterprises accounting for 47.7%. See Figure 15.

Background Notes

Gross value added (GVA) at factor cost
GVA can be expressed at Factor Cost or at Basic Prices. GVA at Basic Prices is the gross income from operating activities while GVA at factor cost is the gross income from operating activities adjusting for operating subsidies and indirect taxes. In the Structural Business Statistics release GVA is expressed at Factor Cost. Data on GVA at Basic Prices is available here for Industry and here for Construction.

The background notes and detailed methodology for the surveys used to compile the Structural Business Statistics release can be found as follows:

Census of Industrial Production Enterprises

Annual Services Inquiry

Building and Construction Inquiry

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