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Business in Ireland 2019

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

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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.

Key Statistics on SMEs

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X-axis label	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Active enterprises	0.3	99.7
Persons engaged	33.6	66.4
Turnover	56.4	43.6
GVA	63.1	36.9

SMEs (<250 persons engaged) accounted for 99.7% of the total number of enterprises in 2019 and 66.4% of all persons engaged
SMEs generated 43.6% of total turnover in the Business Economy and 36.9% of gross value added (GVA) was attributed to these enterprises
Large enterprises (250+ persons engaged) generated 56.4% of total turnover and 63.1% of total GVA in the Business Economy in 2019

Micro enterprises (<10 persons engaged) accounted for 91.4% of all enterprises in 2019
Small (10-49 persons engaged) and medium (50-249 persons engaged) enterprises combined accounted for 8.3% of the total number of enterprises, while large enterprises accounted for the remaining 0.3%

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Active enterprises
Micro (<10)	91.4
Small (10-49)	7
Medium (50-249)	1.31984985194345
Large (250+)	0.260520821484528

Micro enterprises accounted for 24.4% of persons engaged and had the highest number of enterprises (91.4%)
Small and medium enterprises combined accounted for 42.0% of total persons engaged in 2019 and 8.3% of the total number of enterprises
Large enterprises accounted for the greatest percentage of persons engaged in 2019 at 33.6% despite having the lowest number of enterprises (0.3%)

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	Persons engaged
Micro (<10)	24.4
Small (10-49)	21.7
Medium (50-249)	20.3467702048533
Large (250+)	33.5858024467962

Small and medium enterprises combined generated 19.0% of gross value added (GVA)
Micro enterprises contributed 17.8% of total GVA while representing 91.4% of all enterprises
Large enterprises accounted for 63.1% of GVA in the Business Economy in 2019

For long labels below use to display on multiple lines	GVA
Micro (<10)	17.8
Small (10-49)	8.5
Medium (50-249)	10.5
Large (250+)	63.1

X-axis label	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Construction	7.84569005289868	92.1543099471013
Distribution	28.9502388963144	71.0497611036856
Services	31.5103047015163	68.4896952984837
Industry	49.4391031702206	50.5608968297793
Financial and Insurance	65.4390589383038	34.5609410616962

The Construction sector had the largest share of its persons engaged in SMEs in 2019, at 92.2%
Both the Distribution sector (71.0%) and the Services sector (68.5%) reported that close to 7 in 10 of all persons engaged were in SMEs
The Financial and Insurance sector was the only sector in the Business Economy to report a higher proportion of employment in large enterprises than in SMEs with 65.4% persons engaged

	Large (250+ persons engaged)	SMEs (<250 persons engaged)
Construction	13	87
Distribution	30.6	69.4
Services	49.8	50.2
Industry	87.1	12.9

The Construction sector reported that 87.0% of their total gross value added (GVA) was in SMEs in 2019
SMEs in the Distribution sector recorded a figure of 69.4% for GVA, compared to the Services sector at 50.2%
Industry SMEs accounted for 12.9% of GVA in the sector

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
Percentage of active enterprises	6.82454473069119	21.8	17.167221343627	51.2723323218276	3.0227753906895

The Services sector had the highest percentage of SMEs in the Business Economy with 51.3% of all SMEs in 2019
The Construction sector had the second highest percentage of SMEs at 21.8%
The Financial and Insurance sector accounted for just 3.0% of all SMEs

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance
Percentage of persons engaged	11.6	12.6	24	48.6	3.2

The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of persons engaged in SMEs in 2019 (48.6%). The lowest proportion was in the Financial and Insurance sector with just 3.2% of persons engaged
Having accounted for 21.8% of all active SMEs, the Construction sector accounted for just 12.6% of persons engaged in SMEs
SMEs in the Distribution sector accounted for 24.0% of all persons engaged in SMEs and 17.2% of all active SMEs in 2019
The Industry sector reported that 11.6% of all persons engaged and 6.8% of all active enterprises were in SMEs

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services
Percentage of Gross Value Added	15.9	10.4	19.2	54.4

Enterprises in the Services sector accounted for 54.4% of all SMEs' gross value added (GVA)
The Distribution and Industry sectors accounted for 19.2% and 15.9% of all SMEs' GVA respectively
SMEs in the Construction sector recorded the lowest rate of all SMEs' gross value added at 10.4%

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total Business Economy
2014	100	100	100	100	100	100
2015	103.25709600321	111.270032181517	103.187794642894	105.773185065631	105.407926907734	105.314983738848
2016	106.34933096073	123.046083498575	105.924711162624	110.377143430309	108.161755243855	109.893759021896
2017	109.554962404703	139.023068838106	108.787807795218	116.241969972599	112.971303564535	115.612119341206
2018	112.338410006804	145.122387283425	109.805468900918	118.3287512595	116.744949169991	117.96248630411
2019	116.60822386211	157.996077539035	114.047915562077	128.189328555211	118.527216574443	125.669902954834

All sectors experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in SMEs between the base year 2014 and 2019
The Construction sector reported the largest increase in persons engaged during the period 2014-2019 at 58.0%, with Services next at 28.2%
The total Business Economy showed an overall increase in persons engaged of 25.7% for the same period

	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total Business Economy
2014	100	100	100	100	100	100
2015	107.839170828858	79.646017699115	101.377681348396	108.447996629228	99.5334679393049	104.777375231411
2016	118.276800517189	89.5918636903976	105.104581939442	120.345109089233	100.772454723446	112.774102296123
2017	122.384075576364	118.029322414476	109.788057244851	128.741095764151	103.415626529613	118.797413512202
2018	127.053376849525	139.862633733985	115.225035537552	140.423584868395	105.749816446402	126.156449203127
2019	136.300220013972	163.967771760666	120.842640787491	170.322725058264	106.705824767499	141.118542530056

All sectors experienced an overall increase in persons engaged in large enterprises between the base year 2014 and 2019
Services showed the largest overall increase in persons engaged in large enterprises in the period 2014 to 2019 with an increase of 70.3%, followed by the Construction sector at 64.0%
With respect to large enterprises, the total Business Economy employment showed an overall increase of 41.1% between 2014 and 2019

3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2019

3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2019

3.3 Number of persons engaged in SMEs by sector, 2014 - 2019

3.4 Number of persons engaged in large enterprises by sector, 2014 - 2019

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Table 3.1 Number of active enterprises and persons engaged by sector and size class, 2019
						No.
Class size	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services¹	Financial and Insurance²	Total Business Economy
Active Enterprises
Micro (<10)	15,976	56,935	40,128	128,619	7,468	249,126
Small (10-49)	1,810	2,007	5,709	8,966	561	19,053
Medium (50-249)	627	208	834	1,808	143	3,620
All SMEs (<250)³	18,413	59,150	46,671	139,393	8,172	271,799
Large	186	25	115	340	66	732
All sizes³	18,599	59,175	46,786	139,733	8,238	272,531
Persons Engaged
Micro (<10)	28,523	90,656	89,714	204,893	10,803	424,589
Small (10-49)	38,468	37,422	112,047	178,299	11,120	377,356
Medium (50-249)	66,691	17,735	75,721	179,131	14,920	354,198
All SMEs (<250)³	133,682	145,813	277,482	562,323	36,843	1,156,143
Large	130,716	12,414	113,064	258,710	69,760	584,664
All sizes³	264,398	158,227	390,546	821,033	106,603	1,740,807
Source: CSO Business Demography
¹ Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and Services NACE divisions R92, R93, S95, S96.
² Excludes activities of financial holding companies (K642).
³Totals may differ due to rounding.

Table 3.2 Turnover and gross value added by sector and size class, 2019
					€m
Class size	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services¹	Total Business Economy
Turnover
Micro (<10)	16,907	17,884	48,203	59,221	142,214
Small (10-49)	7,421	6,906	60,319	29,271	103,917
Medium (50-249)	27,364	4,059	38,867	37,922	108,212
All SMEs (<250)²	51,691	28,848	147,389	126,414	354,343
Large	235,991	4,852	45,228	172,810	458,881
All sizes²	287,682	33,701	192,617	299,224	813,224
Gross value added
Micro (<10)	4,100	6,013	5,417	29,574	45,104
Small (10-49)	2,489	2,272	6,526	10,303	21,590
Medium (50-249)	8,250	1,434	6,021	10,928	26,634
All SMEs (<250)²	14,839	9,720	17,964	50,806	93,329
Large	99,807	1,456	7,920	50,401	159,585
All sizes²	114,646	11,176	25,884	101,207	252,913
Source: CSO Structural Business Statistics
¹ Excludes Financial & Insurance activities (NACE Rev.2 Section K) and includes Services NACE divisions of R92, R93, S95, S96.
² Totals may differ due to rounding.

Table 3.3 Number of persons engaged in SMEs by sector, 2014 - 2019
						No.
Year	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total Business Economy
2014	114,642	92,289	243,303	438,666	31,084	919,984
2015	118,376	102,690	251,059	463,991	32,765	968,881
2016	121,921	113,558	257,718	484,187	33,621	1,011,005
2017	125,596	128,303	264,684	509,914	35,116	1,063,613
2018	128,787	133,932	267,160	519,068	36,289	1,085,236
2019	133,682	145,813	277,482	562,323	36,843	1,156,143
Source: CSO Business Demography

Table 3.4 Number of persons engaged in large enterprises by sector, 2014 - 2019
						No.
Year	Industry	Construction	Distribution	Services	Financial and Insurance	Total Business Economy
2014	95,903	7,571	93,563	151,894	65,376	414,307
2015	103,421	6,030	94,852	164,726	65,071	434,100
2016	113,431	6,783	98,339	182,797	65,881	467,231
2017	117,370	8,936	102,721	195,550	67,609	492,186
2018	121,848	10,589	107,808	213,295	69,135	522,675
2019	130,716	12,414	113,064	258,710	69,760	584,664
Source: CSO Business Demography

Business in Ireland 2019

Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Key Statistics on SMEs

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