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Business In Ireland 2015

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs)

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This chapter outlines some of the main CSO statistics available for SMEs. Chapter 4, which deals with Business Performance in Ireland, also contains data on these enterprises.

SMEs are defined as enterprises with less than 250 persons engaged. In this chapter, SMEs are further split into Micro enterprises with less than 10 persons engaged, other Small enterprises with between 10 and 49 persons engaged and Medium sized enterprises with between 50 and 249 persons engaged. See Appendix 3.

See Tables 3.1 and 3.2 in this chapter for more detail on the data used in graphs.

Key Statistics on SMEs

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	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Active enterprises	99.8	0.2
Persons engaged	69.1	30.9
Turnover	47.8	52.2
GVA	38.8	61.2

Large enterprises employed almost 31% of all persons engaged in 2015 and accounted for 0.2% of total number of enterprises
Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 99.8% of total number of enterprises in 2015 and over 69% of all persons engaged
SMEs generated 47.8% of total Turnover in the business economy and almost 39% of Gross Value added was attributed to these enterprises

Micro enterprises accounted for 92.2% of all enterprises in 2015
Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 7.5% of the total number of enterprises, while Large enterprises accounted for the remaining 0.2%

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Active enterprises
Micro (<10)	92.2
Small (10-49)	6.4
Medium (50-249)	1.1
Large (250+)	0.2

Large enterprises accounted for the greatest percentage of persons engaged in 2015 at nearly 31% despite having the lowest number of enterprises
Micro enterprises accounted for almost 28% of persons engaged and had the highest number of enterprises
Small and Medium enterprises combined accounted for 41.5% of total persons engaged in 2015

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Persons engaged
Micro (<10)	27.6
Small (10-49)	21.9
Medium (50-249)	19.6
Large (250+)	30.9

SMEs accounted for almost 39% of all Gross Value Added in the Business Economy in 2015
Micro enterprises contributed 18.7% of total GVA
Small and Medium enterprises generated the remaining 20.1% of Gross Value Added
Large enterprises accounted for just over 61% of GVA

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	GVA
Micro (<10)	18.7
Small (10-49)	10
Medium (50-249)	10.1
Large (250+)	61.2

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Construction	94.5	5.5
Services	73.8	26.2
Distribution	72.6	27.4
Industry	53.4	46.6
Financial and Insurance	33.5	66.5

Construction had the largest share of its persons engaged in Small and Medium enterprises in 2015, at 94.5%
Both the Services and Distribution sectors reported over 70% of all persons engaged to be in SMEs
Unlike other sectors, the majority of employment for the Financial and Insurance sector, 66.5%, came from Large enterprises

	SMEs (<250)	Large (250+)
Construction	90.9	9.1
Distribution	77.2	22.8
Services	60.7	39.3
Industry	12.9	87.1

In the Construction sector, almost 91% of all Gross Value Added was in Small and Medium enterprises in 2015
SMEs in the Distribution and Services sectors recorded over 77% and almost 61% of the GVA in their sectors respectively
Industry SMEs accounted for just under 13% of GVA

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
% of active enterprises	6.9	20.4	18.7	51.3	2.8

Small and Medium enterprises made up 51% of the number of enterprises in the Services sector in 2015, with Construction having the second highest percentage of SMEs at 20.4%
The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 2.8% of all SMEs. This is largely reflective of the fact that the majority of enterprises in this sector were Large enterprises

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
% of persons engaged	12.2	10.6	25.9	47.9	3.4

The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of persons engaged in Small and Medium enterprises in 2015 with almost 48%. The lowest proportion was in the Financial and Insurance sector with just 3.4%
Having accounted for over 20% of all active Small and Medium enterprises, Construction accounted for just 10.6% of persons engaged in SMEs
The Distribution sector accounted for 25.9% of all persons engaged in 2015 even though it had only 18.7% of all active SMEs
The Industry sector reported 12.2% of all persons engaged and 6.9% of all Small and Medium enterprises

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
GVA	17.1	8	21.2	53.7

Enterprises in the Services sector accounted for almost 54% of all SME Gross Value Added
The Distribution and Industry sectors had 21% and 17% of GVA respectively
Small and Medium Enterprises in the Construction sector recorded the lowest rate of Gross Value Added at 8%

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total business economy
2010	100	100	100	100	100	100
2011	98.9	90.9	99.5	100.6	104.4	99.1
2012	96.2	85.7	98.6	102.9	104	98.9
2013	95.3	86.6	98.9	105.4	105.4	100.2
2014	99.6	92.4	100.4	110.4	106.9	104.1
2015	102.9	102.8	103.6	116.7	112.7	109.6

All sectors experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in Small and Medium Enterprises between the base year 2010 and 2015
Services reported the largest increase in the period 2010 to 2015 at 16.7%, with the Financial and Insurance sector next at 12.7%
The total business economy showed an overall increase of 9.6% for the same period

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total business economy
2010	100	100	100	100	100	100
2011	100.8	83	99.8	98.7	98.2	99.2
2012	101.5	79.5	101.9	101.2	100	101
2013	104.6	99.9	106.9	105.3	97.5	104.1
2014	109.9	163.4	107.4	108.3	97	107.2
2015	118.5	130.1	108.9	117.4	96.5	112.3

All sectors apart from the Financial and Insurance sector experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in Large enterprises between the base year 2010 and 2015
Construction showed the largest overall increase in persons engaged in Large enterprises in the period 2010 to 2015 with an increase of 30.1%, followed by the Industrial sector at 18.5%
The Financial and Insurance sector experienced a decrease of 3.5% between 2010 and 2015
With respect to Large enterprises, the total business economy employment showed an overall increase of 12.3% between 2010 and 2015

3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2015

3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2015

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Table 3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2015
												No.
	Industry		Construction		Distribution		Services		Financial and Insurance¹		Total Business Economy
Class Size	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged	Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged
Micro (<10)	14,760	26,159	49,192	71,430	40,537	89,882	118,674	189,213	6,308	10,041	229,471	386,725
Small (10-49)	1,705	35,900	1,240	22,362	5,315	99,792	7,231	139,641	511	9,930	16,002	307,625
Medium (50-249)	545	56,317	101	8,898	684	61,385	1,371	135,137	128	12,794	2,829	274,531
All SMEs (<250)	17,010	118,376	50,533	102,690	46,536	251,059	127,276	463,991	6,947	32,765	248,302	968,881
Large	166	103,421	13	6,030	90	94,852	209	164,726	62	65,071	540	434,100
All sizes	17,176	221,797	50,546	108,720	46,626	345,911	127,485	628,717	7,009	97,836	248,842	1,402,981
Source: CSO Business Demography
¹ Excludes activities of financial holding companies (K642).

Table 3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2015
										€m
	Industry		Construction		Distribution		Services¹		Total Business Economy¹
Class Size	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added	Turnover	Gross Value Added
Micro (<10)	7,145	2,031	9,561	4,091	39,786	5,694	56,765	21,924	113,257	33,740
Small (10-49)	11,706	3,986	3,077	996	48,634	5,170	25,801	7,916	89,218	18,068
Medium (50-249)	22,041	5,966	1,160	529	33,328	3,968	28,292	7,708	84,821	18,171
All SMEs (<250)	40,892	11,983	13,798	5,616	121,748	14,832	110,858	37,548	287,296	69,979
Large	192,913	81,133	1,560	560	26,387	4,382	92,971	24,346	313,831	110,421
All sizes	233,805	93,116	15,358	6,176	148,135	19,214	203,829	61,894	601,127	180,400
Source: CSO structural business surveys
¹ Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and includes Services sectors of R92, R93, S95, S96.

Business In Ireland 2015

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs)

Key Statistics on SMEs

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