There were 291,489 enterprises in the non-financial Irish business economy in 2020.
More than two-thirds (68.4%) of all persons engaged in the non-financial Irish business economy were associated with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Collectively, the 50 largest enterprises in Ireland by gross value added (GVA) were responsible for 59.7% of all GVA in the non-financial Irish business economy in 2020. By contrast, these enterprises accounted for 5.5% of all persons engaged.
In 2020, the Services sector accounted for almost half (49.0%) of all wages & salaries paid in Ireland's non-financial business economy.
Persons engaged in the Industrial sector enjoyed the highest average sectoral wage in Ireland in 2020, at €53,755.
The year 2020 saw the highest seasonally adjusted monthly decrease in the volume of retail sales in April (-37.3%) related to the first lockdown, followed by a sharp recovery in May 2020 (+29.8%) and June 2020 (+36.6%) as the country re-opened.
Statistician's Comment
Business in Ireland is an annual thematic publication released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This publication outlines the key statistics for the Irish business economy in 2020.
Business Demography data (largely based on administrative data from the Revenue Commissioners) is used to analyse the number of enterprises and employment across the five sectors of Industry, Construction, Distribution, Services, and Financial & Insurance. This data is combined with the Structural Business Surveys, which are run annually by the CSO.
In 2020, other surveys which provided insight into the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on businesses were included in this report, such as the Retail Sales Index.
This publication provides answers to many key policy questions, such as:
Commenting on the release, Eamonn Cleary, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said: “There were 291,489 active enterprises in the non-financial Irish business economy in 2020, with 1,598,643 persons engaged in total.
Total turnover for the business economy was €816.0 billion. Services enterprises represented 37.3% of this total, while Industrial enterprises accounted for 36.7%.
Gross value added (GVA) for the business economy was €275.8 billion, of which gross operating surplus (GOS) was €215.8 billion and personnel costs were €60.0 billion.
The 50 largest enterprises in the business economy, by GVA, accounted for 46.4% of total turnover, 59.7% of total GVA, and 73.2% of GOS. However, these enterprises represented just 5.5% of persons engaged.
Large enterprises (those with 250 or more persons engaged), accounted for two-thirds (65.5%) of all GVA in the Irish business economy and 58.1% of turnover.
In 2020, the Services sector accounted for almost half (49.0%) of all wages and salaries paid in Ireland’s business economy. However, the sector with the highest average wage in the business economy was Industry, at €53,755.
There were 8,342 foreign-owned multinationals operating in Ireland in 2020, with 457,990 persons engaged. These enterprises had turnover of €581.9 billion and GVA of €201.6 billion.
By contrast, there were 283,147 Irish-owned enterprises, which had 1,140,653 persons engaged. Their turnover was €234.1 billion, and GVA was €74.2 billion.
The COVID-19 pandemic had a notable effect on the Retail Sales Index (RSI) in Ireland in 2020, with the highest seasonally adjusted monthly decrease in the volume of retail sales in April (-37.3%) related to the first lockdown, followed by a sharp recovery in May 2020 (+29.8%) and June 2020 (+36.6%) as the country re-opened.
There was also significant use of COVID-19 related income support schemes in Ireland in 2020. For instance, in April 2020, 57.3% of all enterprises had personnel who availed of at least one of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) or the Wage Subsidy Schemes (TWSS/EWSS).”