Exporting Enterprises in Ireland 2017 has been created with a view to providing a more detailed insight into the relationship between exports by enterprises in Ireland and their turnover. It includes a new indicator, export intensity, which is compiled using an amalgamation of data sources to create a broader picture of the Irish export market than was previously available.
This publication also helps address many other important questions, such as:
It should be noted that this methodology was based on emerging European guidelines and may be modified for future publications.
Statistics in this publication are not directly comparable with other material published to date by the CSO. This occurs for a number of reasons:
The underlying data is based on amalgamating the CSO’s Structural Business Statistics (SBS) surveys with the CSO's Trade data. The Trade data is a combination of cross-border trade data supplied from International Trade in Goods Statistics (ITGS), Balance of Payments (BoP), which supply additional goods data that account for a change in economic ownership and services exports, as well as administrative data from VAT Information Exchange System (VIES).
Structural Business Statistics
The SBS surveys used for this release are the Census of Industrial Production (CIP), Annual Services Inquiry (ASI) and the Building and Construction Inquiry (BCI).
The CIP covers all enterprises which are wholly or principally involved in industrial production. This survey is carried out on an annual basis. Administrative data are used for some micro enterprises which are not surveyed as well as non-respondents across all case sizes. The scope of the CIP extends to NACE Rev. 2 sections B, C, D and E.
For further information, please see the CIP background notes below:
The ASI has been conducted as an annual survey of both distributive and non-distributive services since 1991. Results are published aggregated by the type of activity (NACE), region, size class, etc. All enterprises with one or more persons engaged are included. Administrative data are used for some micro enterprises which are not surveyed as well as non-respondents across all case sizes. The survey covers all enterprises in the Retail, Wholesale, Transport & Storage, Accommodation & Food, Information & Communication, Real Estate, Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities, Administrative & Support Activities and Other Selected Services sectors (NACE Rev. 2 sectors G, H, I, J, L, M, N, R and S). Enterprises that traded for at least 6 months in the reference year are included in the survey. Since 1995 the CSO’s Central Business Register provides the sampling frame, from which the Annual Services Inquiry sample is selected each year.
For further information, please see the ASI background notes below:
The BCI was introduced in 2009 for reference year 2008 onwards and replaced the Census of Building and Construction (CBC). The CBC covered all private firms with 20 or more persons engaged whose main activity was building, construction or civil engineering (i.e. Section F of NACE Rev. 2). The BCI extended this coverage to also include a sample of private firms with less than 20 persons engaged. Administrative data are used for some micro enterprises which are not surveyed as well as non-respondents across all case sizes. The Business Register is used as the sampling frame for the BCI.
For further information, please see the BCI background notes below:
Data on exports of goods are collected by VIMA (a branch of Revenue) via the Intrastat survey for Intra-EU trade. Extra-EU trade is collected via the Extrastat survey.
For more information on the Intrastat and Extrastat systems, see the Methods page for External Trade statistics on the CSO website.
Various Balance of Payments and National Accounts quarterly and annual surveys have been used to provide data for this publication. These effectively provide all of the services data in use, as well as merchanting of goods trade and goods for processing adjustments.
For more information, please see the below link to the Balance of Payments section on the CSO website:
The VIES system was also used to increase the levels of microdata available for this publication. In the VIES system, enterprises report the VAT number of the partner company with whom they are trading in the EU. These VAT numbers can then be linked with the CSO’s Business Register to increase coverage of exporting enterprises.
The reporting statistical unit for this publication is the enterprise. The enterprise is defined as the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods and/or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making.
The export intensity of an enterprise refers to the ratio of the exports of the enterprise to its turnover. An export intensity of zero means that the enterprise does not export and an export intensity of one means that the enterprise is completely reliant on exports, i.e. does not sell anything domestically. There are instances in the dataset where the exports of an enterprise may be greater than its turnover. There are many potential reasons for why this may occur, such as wholesaling of goods by one enterprise on behalf of other enterprises or processing of goods on behalf of other enterprises. Enterprises such as these were retained in the data.
The results presented in this release include only enterprises whose value of exports exceeded €5,000 in the reference year. Furthermore, only enterprises with an export intensity of greater than 5% in the reference year are classified as an exporting enterprise. This 5% threshold is chosen based on emerging European standards. The effect of this is that some classifications may be volatile year-on-year because only those enterprises which meet this condition were included. However, if the threshold criteria were not imposed then the numbers of exporting enterprises would be significantly inflated.
Furthermore, trade data which could not be directly linked to an enterprise has been excluded from this publication. Note however that this only applies to a minor proportion of the overall value of Trade.
The Sector classification used was based on the NACE Rev. 2 categories and was determined as follows:
| Sector | NACE Rev. 2 Codes |
| Industry | 05-33, 35-39 |
| Construction | 41-43 |
| Distribution | 45-47 |
| Services | 49-53, 55-56, 58-63, 68-75, 77-82 (excluding 7735) |
| Other | 01-03, 84-88, 90-99 |
Similarly, the Modern and Traditional Sectors were defined in accordance with NACE Rev. 2 as follows:
| Sector | NACE Rev. 2 Codes |
| Modern | 18, 20-21, 26-27, 3250, 58-59, 61-63 |
| Traditional | All other NACE Rev. 2 categories |
For this publication, the Modern sector includes the manufacture of recorded media, pharmaceutical/chemical products and electronics. The Modern sector also includes the services aspects of publishing, motion picture and other elements of ICT. For more information on which NACE Rev. 2 categories constitute the Modern and Traditional sector for this publication, please see below:
https://statbank.cso.ie/px/u/NACECoder/NACEItems/searchnace.asp
Note that the “Modern” and “Traditional” sectors in the Monthly Industrial Inquiry (MII) are effectively subsets of the breakdowns used in this release.
Enterprise size class is determined by the number of persons engaged as follows:
| Size Class | Number of Persons Engaged |
| Micro | 0 - 9 |
| Small | 10 - 49 |
| Medium | 50 - 249 |
| Large | 250+ |
The ‘Small and Medium Enterprise’ classification refers to any enterprise in the Micro, Small or Medium category.
The Reliance on Exports classification is determined by the export intensity of the exporting enterprise.
| Reliance Category | Export Intensity |
| Not Very Reliant | 5% < 25% |
| Slightly Reliant | 25% < 50% |
| Reliant | 50% < 75% |
| Very Reliant | >= 75% |
All regional breakdowns described in this release in line with Eurostat’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). The categorisation used is at NUTS 3 level, and can be described as follows:
| NUTS 3 Region | County |
| Border |
Donegal |
| Sligo | |
| Leitrim | |
| Cavan | |
| Monaghan | |
| West | Galway |
| Mayo | |
| Roscommon | |
| Mid-West | Clare |
| Tipperary | |
| Limerick | |
| South-East | Waterford |
| Kilkenny | |
| Carlow | |
| Wexford | |
| South-West | Cork |
| Kerry | |
| Dublin | Dublin |
| Mid-East | Wicklow |
| Kildare | |
| Meath | |
| Louth | |
| Midlands | Longford |
| Westmeath | |
| Offaly | |
| Laois |
Note: The geographical breakdown for enterprises is an approximation. The county breakdown is based on the address at which an enterprise is registered for Revenue purposes, rather than where the business actually operates from, because no comprehensive administrative data source is currently available for business locations.
| Export Destination | Countries |
| United Kingdom | United Kingdom (Note: There is no distinction made between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom made in this release) |
| Rest of the European Union | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden |
| Eurozone | Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain |
| EFTA | Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland |
| Americas | United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bonaire, Bahamas, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Falkland Islands, Grenada, Greenland, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Cayman Islands, St. Lucia, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, El Salvador, St. Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, US Virgin Islands |
| Rest of the World | All other countries |
Note: In this publication, China includes China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
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 definition of the age of an enterprise is taken using data taken from when the enterprise was first registered for either VAT, Corporation Tax, Income Tax or PREM. The reference date was taken to be 31 December of the reference year. For illustration, this means that for 2016, any enterprise which was first registered during 2016 has an enterprise age of 0 (completed) years, or an enterprise first registered during 2012 has an enterprise age of 4 (completed) years, and so on.
A ‘young’ enterprise is an enterprise which has an enterprise age of five years or less for the reference year. An established enterprise is an enterprise with an age of greater than five years. Hence, enterprises will move from the young category to the established category over time and these changes may be reflected in the data.
On the CSO’s Central Business Register (CBR), there are some cases where the address of an enterprise may be listed as being outside of Ireland. Hence, these enterprises will not be assigned a NUTS 3 region as described above. For this reason, it is likely that the cumulative totals in the published regional tables will not equal the cumulative totals for the published overall tables.
As previously described, the reporting statistical unit for this publication is the enterprise. The enterprise is defined as the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods and/or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making.
In certain situations, trade data is reported to one legal unit for multiple enterprises. In this situation, the trade is estimated out among the enterprises based on the reported turnover.
For unit non-response, turnover was estimated based on previous survey returns or administrative data where available. For all other enterprises, turnover is imputed using k-nearest neighbour (KNN) methodology. KNN works by finding the distance between a query and all the examples in the data, selecting the specified number of examples (K=15) closest to the query, and then averaging the labels.