Business Demography 2010

Headline figures:

• There were over 195,000 enterprises active in the private business economy¹ in Ireland in 2010, with nearly 1.24 million persons engaged². This represented a decrease of 5.4% in enterprises and 5.5% in persons engaged from the previous year.
• Small and medium enterprises accounted for 99.8% of the total enterprise population and 69.1% of persons engaged.
• During 2010, over 11,000 enterprise births were created with an average of 0.9 persons engaged per enterprise. Sector D “Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply” was the sector with the highest enterprise birth rate of 12.3% (38 enterprises). The sector with the second highest birth rate was Sector J “Information and communication” with a 9.2% birth rate (928 enterprises)
• More than 24,000 businesses ceased during 2009³, resulting in a loss of nearly 35,000 jobs. The sector where deaths had the largest effect on employment was Sector F “Construction” with 17.1% of enterprises in this sector ceasing during the year, and a loss of 7.7% of jobs in the sector. This was followed by Sector L “Real Estate Activities”, with 11.6% of enterprises closing, and a loss of 6.9% of jobs.
• Over a quarter of all enterprises active during 2010 started trading in the period 2006 - 2010. These new enterprises accounted for 5.3% of persons engaged in the business economy in 2010. 

Background

Business Demography statistics provide a detailed breakdown of the numbers of active enterprises, newly birthed and ceased enterprises, broken down by economic activity and employment class or legal form. Related employment data is also supplied. A breakdown of active enterprises and related employment on a county basis is also provided.

This press release covers the reference year 2010, however data on enterprise deaths relates to 2009³. Statistics are also provided on enterprise births since 2006 that were still active during 2010. All enterprise births will be followed for 5 years to assess their survival rate and the resulting effect on employment.

Detailed data tables are available on CSO’s data dissemination service: Click here

The Background Notes at the link below provide more details on the release: Click here

For further information on the NACE Rev. 2 classification of economic activity: Click here

Footnotes:

¹ The private business economy covers the NACE Rev 2 sectors B - N (excluding 64.20 Activities of holding companies).

The full list of Rev 2 sectors covered is:

B – Mining and Quarrying

C – Manufacturing

D – Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply

E – Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste management and Remediation Activities

F – Construction

G – Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles

H – Transportation and Storage

I – Accommodation and Food Service Activities

J – Information and Communication

K – Financial and Insurance Activities (excludes NACE code 64.20

Activities of holding companies )

L – Real Estate Activities

M – Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities

N – Administrative and Support Service Activities

P – Education

² Persons engaged includes employees, working proprietors and family members.

³ Population, births and survival data in this release relates to 2010, but the latest deaths data available is for 2009. See the

Background Notes for more information at

http://www.cso.ie/en/surveysandmethodology/multi-sectoral/businessdemography/backgroundnotes/

⁴ The composition of sectors used in the graph is as follows:

For further information contact:

Jillian Delaney 021 453 5258 or

AnneMaria Hogan 021 453 5244 or

Donal King 021 453 5245

The business specialists above can be contacted by e-mail using their firstname.lastname@cso.ie or through the Business Register e-mail busreg@cso.ie

Central Statistics Office                                                                     22 June 2012

                                                           – ENDS –