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Business In Ireland 2015

Enterprise Births, Survivals and Deaths

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CSO Business Demography data monitors the number of enterprise births (new enterprises created) and deaths (enterprises that ceased trading) in the business economy. Births and deaths due to mergers, takeovers, break-ups, change of activity or the restructuring of a set of enterprises are all excluded from the data.

This chapter presents this information at a broad sectoral level as well as for the total business economy. It is also possible to track new enterprise births in order to gain a better understanding of the types of business that are more likely to survive the early years of their life cycle1.

1 See Appendix 2 for full definitions of enterprise births and deaths.

DeathsBirths
20101702213955
20111517714343
20121619915079
20131828713825
20141531616256
201518102
  • The total number of enterprises that ceased trading during 2014 was 15,316, a decrease of over 16% from 2013 levels
  • Enterprise deaths decreased by 10% in the period 2010 to 2014
  • In 2015, births showed an annual increase of over 11% to 18,102
  • Between 2010 and 2015  the number of new births increased by almost 30%
  • The lowest number of enterprise births between 2010 and 2015 was 13,825 enterprises in 2013

 

DeathsBirths
20102369016961
20112075016794
20122046718605
20132285716505
20142200119382
201523073
  • The total number of persons engaged in enterprise that ceased trading during 2014 was 22,001, a drop of over 7% on 2010 figures
  • Employment in enterprise deaths between 2013 and 2014 decreased by almost 4%
  • Persons engaged in enterprise births increased from 16,961 in 2010 to 23,073 in 2015, which is the highest recorded number of persons engaged in enterprise births since the Business Demography series first began
  • Persons employed in enterprise births showed an annual increase of just over 19% in 2015
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
2010778246725527710448
2011895258926837791385
2012925275727048174519
2013968247323047441639
20141110352624688734418
20151186422625739573544
  • All sectors showed an annual increase in the number of new enterprise births in 2015
  • The largest annual increase in enterprise births was in the Services sector, which showed an increase of 839 new births on the previous year from 8,734 to 9,573 in 2015 
  • The second largest increase in 2015 was in the Construction sector which had 700 new enterprises
  • The Financial and Insurance sector experienced the highest percentage increase in new births between 2014 and 2015 at 30.1% 
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
20107112432320610308304
2011995267933529474294
201220702817290210105711
2013910249733389250510
201412763663285011156437
201517044376333313210450
  • The Services sector had 13,210 persons engaged in enterprise births in 2015, the largest number of births in any business sector
  • This was followed by the Construction sector with 4,376 persons engaged
  • The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 450 persons engaged in new enterprise births in 2015
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
2010963469728578066439
2011874378627717363383
2012957358429528144562
20131061380332179319887
2014909320225988130477
  • The number of enterprise deaths annually decreased across all sectors in 2014
  • The Services sector had the highest number of deaths with 8,130 enterprises ceasing activity in 2014 
  • The Construction sector also accounted for a large proportion of total deaths at 3,202 enterprises
  • The largest annual percentage decrease for enterprise deaths in 2014 was in the Financial and Insurance sector which decreased from 887 enterprise deaths in 2013 to 477 enterprise deaths in 2014, a drop of 46.2%
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
2010128253724708110781250
201112784080453710504351
201214003508455510673331
201312273544454813111427
201419573227389612429492
  • The Services sector accounted for the largest number of persons engaged in enterprise deaths in 2014 with a value of 12,429 employees
  • The smallest number of persons engaged in enterprises that ceased trading during 2014 was 492 persons in the Financial and Insurance sector
  • The Industry sector showed the largest annual percentage increase of persons engaged in enterprise deaths in 2014 at 59.5%, when the number of employees who worked for enterprises that ceased during the year increased from 1,227 persons in 2013 to 1,957 persons in 2014                 
  • The number of positions lost because of enterprise deaths in the Distribution sector fell from 4,548 persons engaged in 2013 to 3,896 persons in 2014, a drop of 14.3%
2010 births2011 births2012 births2013 births2014 births
Year of birth1395414344150801382416257
Survived 1 year1218112970132561170813952
Survived 2 years11678119431169210938
Survived 3 years107751072010931
Survived 4 years974210157
Survived 5 years9331
  • All enterprise births were monitored for the years 2010 to 2014 to assess their survival rate and the resulting effect on employment 
  • The one year survival rate which relates to enterprises born in one year and still active in the next year, decreased slightly from 2010 to 2014 from 87.3% to 85.3% 
  • There were 13,954 new enterprise birthed in 2010, with 9,331 of these still active in reference year 2015, a 66.9% survival rate
2010 births2011 births2012 births2013 births2014 births
Year of birth1696116794186061650519383
Survived 1 year1468115005156831442816837
Survived 2 years13792137151480014102
Survived 3 years128061249214082
Survived 4 years1186011870
Survived 5 years11767
  • There were 16,961 persons engaged in enterprise births in 2010, of which 69.4% or 11,767 persons were still engaged in 2015 
  • The one year survival rate for persons engaged in enterprise births from 2011 to 2015 increased slightly from 86.6% to 86.9%
  • The two year survival rate for persons engaged increased from 81.3% in 2012 to 85.4% in 2015 
  • The largest number of persons engaged by year of birth was in 2014 with 19,383
2.1 Number of enterprise births and associated persons engaged by sector, 2010 to 2015

2.2 Number of enterprise deaths and associated persons engaged by sector, 2010 to 2014

2.3 Number of enterprise survivals and associated persons engaged by sector, 2010 to 2014

 Go to next chapter >>>Small and Medium Enterprises

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