Back to Top

Central Statistics Office

 Skip navigation

Show Menu  

Business in Ireland 2016

Enterprise Births, Survivals and Deaths

Open in Excel:

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 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.

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

DeathsBirths
20111518214343
20121620215079
20131828613825
20141533816256
20151935618102
201619249
  • The total number of enterprises that ceased trading during 2015 was 19,356, an increase of over 26% from 2014 levels
  • Enterprise deaths increased by 27.5% in the period 2011 to 2015
  • In 2016, births showed an annual increase of over 6% to 19,249
  • The number of new births increased by 34.2% in 2016 when compared to 2011
  • The lowest number of enterprise births between 2011 and 2016 was 13,825 enterprises in 2013

 

DeathsBirths
20112140316794
20122047018605
20132285716505
20142258419382
20152348923073
201624383
  • The total number of persons engaged in enterprises that ceased trading during 2015 was 23,489, an increase of 4% from 2014 and almost 10% when compared to 2011
  • Persons engaged in enterprise births increased from 16,794 in 2011 to 24,383 in 2016
  • The number of persons employed in enterprise births rose by 6% in 2016 compared to 2015
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
2011895258926837791385
2012925275727048174519
2013968247323047441639
20141110352624688734418
20151186422625739573544
20161329462328489983466
  • All sectors showed an annual increase in the number of new enterprise births in 2016, except the Financial and Insurance sector which decreased by 14.3%
  • The largest annual increase in enterprise births took place in the Services sector, which showed an increase of 410 new enterprises on the previous year from 9,573 to 9,983 in 2016 
  • The second largest increase in 2016 was in the Construction sector which had 397 new enterprises
  • The Industry sector experienced the highest increase in new births between 2015 and 2016 (+12.1%)
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
2011995267933529474294
201220702817290210105711
2013910249733389250510
201412763663285011156437
201517044376333313210450
201615715186341013659557
  • The Services sector had 13,659 persons engaged in enterprise births in 2016
  • This was followed by the Construction sector with 5,186 persons engaged
  • The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 557 persons engaged in new enterprise births in 2016
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
2011875378727727365383
2012957358429558144562
20131060380332179319887
2014898301926628257502
201511404218303410220744
  • The number of enterprise deaths increased across all sectors from 2014 to 2015
  • The Services sector had the highest number of deaths in 2015 with 10,220 enterprises ceasing activity
  • The Construction sector also accounted for a large proportion (21.8%) of total deaths in 2015 with 4,218 enterprises ceasing
  • The largest annual percentage increase for enterprise deaths in 2015 was in the Financial and Insurance sector which increased from 502 enterprise deaths in 2014 to 744 enterprise deaths in 2015, a rise of 48.2%
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
201119274081453710507351
201214003508455810673331
201312273544454813111427
201411693142412713615531
201516244182437812343962
  • There were 23,489 persons engaged in enterprise deaths in 2015
  • The Services sector accounted for the largest decrease in the number of persons engaged resulting from enterprise deaths in 2015 with 12,343 employees
  • Services was the only sector showing an annual decrease in persons engaged due to enterprise deaths in 2015 (-9.3%)
  • There were 962 persons engaged in enterprises that ceased trading in the Financial and Insurance sector in 2015
  • The Construction sector showed the largest annual increase in the number of persons engaged in enterprise deaths in 2015, increasing from 3,142 persons in 2014 to 4,182 persons in 2015
2011 births2012 births2013 births2014 births2015 births
Year of birth1434415080138241625718102
Survived 1 year1297013256117081395215133
Survived 2 years11943116921093812685
Survived 3 years107201093110141
Survived 4 years1015710135
Survived 5 years9535
  • All enterprise births were monitored for the years 2011 to 2015 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 from 2011 to 2015 from 90.4% to 83.6% 
  • There were 14,344 new enterprise births in 2011, with 9,535 of these still active in reference year 2016, a 66.5% survival rate.  One third were no longer in operation in 2016
2011 births2012 births2013 births2014 births2015 births
Year of birth1679418606165051938323073
Survived 1 year1500515683144281683719674
Survived 2 years13715148001410215559
Survived 3 years124921408214436
Survived 4 years1187014417
Survived 5 years11212
  • There were 16,794 persons engaged in enterprise births in 2011, of which two thirds or 11,212 persons were still engaged in 2016 
  • The one year survival rate for persons engaged in enterprise births from 2011 to 2015 decreased from 89.3% to 85.3%
  • The two year survival rate for persons engaged decreased slightly from 81.7% in 2013 to 80.3% in 2016 
  • The largest number of persons engaged by year of birth was in 2016 with 24,383
2.1 Number of enterprise births and associated persons engaged by sector, 2011 to 2016

2.2 Number of enterprise deaths and associated persons engaged by sector, 2011 to 2015

2.3 Number of enterprise survivals and associated persons engaged by sector, 2011 to 2015

 Go to next chapter >>>Small and Medium Enterprises

Contents

Contact:

Central Statistics Office
Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E, Ireland

Tel:
(+353) 21 453 5000
E-Mail:
information@cso.ie

Links:

Careers

You can count on a rewarding career with the CSO.

Learn about our variety of roles and the benefits of working with the CSO.

Follow: