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Small and Medium Enterprises

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This chapter outlines some of the main CSO statistics available on 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.

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Large (250+)SMEs (<250)
Active enterprises0.299.8
Persons engaged31.668.4
Turnover49.850.2
GVA61.438.6
  • SMEs accounted for 99.8% of total number of enterprises in 2017 and over 68% of all persons engaged
  • SMEs generated 50.2% of total Turnover in the business economy and almost 39% of Gross Value Added was attributed to these enterprises
  • Large enterprises (250+ employees) employed almost 32% of all persons engaged in 2017 and accounted for 0.2% of total number of enterprises
  • Micro enterprises (<10 employees) accounted for 92.1% of all enterprises in 2017
  • Small (10-49 employees) and Medium (50-249 employees) enterprises accounted for 7.7% of the total number of enterprises, while Large enterprises accounted for the remaining 0.2%
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Active enterprises
Micro (<10)92.1
Small (10-49)6.5
Medium (50-249)1.2
Large (250+)0.2
  • Micro enterprises accounted for 26.5% of persons engaged and had the highest number of enterprises (92.1%)
  • Small and Medium enterprises combined accounted for 42% of total persons engaged in 2017 and 7.7% of the total number of enterprises
  • Large enterprises accounted for the greatest percentage of persons engaged in 2017 at almost 32% despite having the lowest number of enterprises (0.2%)
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Persons engaged
Micro (<10)26.5
Small (10-49)22.1
Medium (50-249)19.8
Large (250+)31.6
  • SMEs accounted for 38.7% of all GVA
  • Small and Medium enterprises generated 20.7% of GVA
  • Micro enterprises contributed 18.0% of total Gross Value Added while representing 92.1% of all enterprises
  • Large enterprises accounted for 61.4% of Gross Value Added in the Business Economy in 2017
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GVA
Micro (<10)18
Small (10-49)9.6
Medium (50-249)11.1
Large (250+)61.4
Large (250+)SMEs (<250)
Construction6.593.5
Services27.772.3
Distribution2872
Industry48.351.7
Financial and Insurance65.834.2
  • Construction had the largest share of its persons engaged in SMEs in 2017, at 93.5%
  • Both the Services and Distribution sectors reported over 70% of all persons engaged to be in SMEs
  • Unlike other sectors, the majority of employment in the Financial and Insurance sector came from Large enterprises, at 65.8%
Large (250+)SMEs (<250)
Construction8.891.2
Distribution23.476.6
Services4654
Industry8614
  • In the Construction sector, over 90% of all Gross Value Added was in SMEs in 2017
  • SMEs in the Distribution sector recorded a figure of almost 77% for GVA, compared to the Services sector at 54% 
  • Industry SMEs accounted for 14% of GVA
IndustryConstruction DistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
percentage of active enterprises6.921.217.951.13
  • SMEs in the Services sector accounted for 51.1% of all small and medium enterprises in 2017, with Construction SMEs having the second highest percentage of SMEs at 21.2%
  • The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 3.0% of all SMEs. 
IndustryConstruction DistributionServicesFinancial and Insurance
percentage of persons engaged11.812.124.947.93.3
  • The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of persons engaged in SMEs in 2017 (47.9%). The lowest proportion was in the Financial and Insurance sector with just 3.3% of persons engaged
  • Having accounted for 21.2% of all active SMEs, Construction accounted for just 12.1% of persons engaged in SMEs
  • SMEs in the Distribution sector accounted for 24.9% of all persons engaged in small and medium enterprises in 2017 even though it had only 17.9% of all active SMEs
  • The Industry sector reported 11.8% of all persons engaged and 6.9% of all SMEs
IndustryConstruction DistributionServices
GVA17.710.421.350.6
  • Enterprises in the Services sector accounted for almost 51% of all SMEs Gross Value Added
  • The Distribution and Industry sectors accounted for over 21% and almost 18% of GVA respectively
  • SMEs in the Construction sector recorded the lowest rate of Gross Value Added at 10.4%
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and InsuranceTotal business economy
2012100100100100100100
201399.2101100.3102.5101.4101.3
2014103.6107.7101.8107.3102.8105.2
2015107119.9105.1113.5108.3110.8
2016110.2132.6107.9118.4111.2115.6
2017113.5149.8110.8124.7116.1121.6
  • All sectors experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in SMEs between the base year 2012 and 2017
  • The Construction sector reported the largest increase in the period 2012 to 2017 at 49.8%, with Services next at 24.7%
  • The total business economy showed an overall increase of 21.6% for the same period. See Table 3.3.
IndustryConstructionDistributionServicesFinancial and InsuranceTotal business economy
2012100100100100100100
2013103.1125.6104.910497.5103.1
2014108.3205.5105.410797106.1
2015116.8163.7106.911696.5111.2
2016128.1184.1110.8128.897.7119.7
2017132.5242.6115.8137.8100.3126.1
  • All sectors experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in Large enterprises between the base year 2012 and 2017
  • Construction showed the largest overall increase in persons engaged in Large enterprises in the period 2012 to 2017 with an increase of 142.6%, followed by the Services sector at 37.8%
  • With respect to Large enterprises, the total business economy employment showed an overall increase of 26.1% between 2012 and 2017. See Table 3.4.
3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2017

3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2017

3.3 Number of persons engaged in SMEs by sector, 2012 - 2017

3.4 Number of persons engaged in large enterprises by sector, 2012 - 2017

Go to next chapter >>> Business Performance in Ireland