Under the new European Business Statistics (EBS) Regulation 2019/2152, the Sectors covered in Structural Business Statistics and Business Demography are now common as part of an EU-wide initiative to improve data processing and enhance coherency across a range of enterprise statistical products. This release provides data on NACE sectors B to S (excluding O and S94). To facilitate comparability with previous years, however, our previous release Business in Ireland 2021 – Summary Results provided data on NACE sectors B to N (excluding K), R92, R93, S95, and S96. Users should note that the results presented in this release include both market and non-market producing enterprises.
The 2021 Business Demography release includes the full population of NACE sectors set out in the Regulation. While the common sectors presented in both Business in Ireland and Business Demography are generally coherent, there may be slight differences in reported enterprises and persons employed. This is primarily due to the application of differing data processing and frame management, including legal form status, which has resulted in those slight differences.
In 2021, there were 369,030 enterprises in the Irish business economy.
An average of 5.5 people were employed per enterprise in Ireland in 2021.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (<250 persons employed) accounted for more than one-third (34.8%) of Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2021.
In 2021, within the Manufacturing sector in Ireland, the top 50 enterprises by GVA were responsible for 97.1% of Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) and 20.9% of persons employed.
Labour productivity (GVA per person employed) was €182,847 in 2021.
In 2021, the Services sector accounted for more than half (56.7%) of all Wages & Salaries paid in Ireland's non-financial business economy.
Persons employed in large construction enterprises (250+ persons employed) enjoyed the highest annual average sectoral wage of €60,288 in Ireland in 2021.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (30 January 2024) published Business in Ireland 2021 – Detailed Results.
Business in Ireland is a thematic publication outlining the key statistics for the Irish business economy in 2021.
This release draws on data from the Structural Business Surveys, Business Demography, and Foreign Affiliate Statistics to analyse the number of enterprises, employment, and performance across the five sectors of Industry, Construction, Distribution, Services, and Financial & Insurance.
This publication provides answers to many key policy questions, such as the impact of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the Irish business economy and the contribution of foreign-owned enterprises in Ireland.
Commenting on the release, Colin Hanley, Statistician in the Business Statistics Division, said: "There were 369,030 active enterprises in the Irish business economy in 2021, employing 2,028,348 people.
Total turnover for the business economy was €1,109.1 billion. Services enterprises represented 44.9% of this total, while Industrial enterprises accounted for 34.3%.
Gross Value Added (GVA) for the business economy was €370.9 billion, of which Gross Operating Surplus (GOS) was €282.5 billion and personnel costs were €88.3 billion.
SMEs accounted for 99.8% of all enterprises, 69.2% of employment and 34.8% of GVA in the Irish business economy.
Top 50 enterprises
The 50 largest enterprises in the business economy by GVA accounted for 48.5% of total turnover, 60.2% of total GVA, and 75.8% of GOS. However, these enterprises represented just 3.7% of persons employed. The 50 largest manufacturers accounted for 97.1% of GOS in the sector while accounting for 20.9% of persons employed.
Wages & Salaries
Average annual Wages & Salaries per person employed in SMEs was €30,400 compared with €47,388 in large enterprises. Large construction firms had the highest average Wages & Salaries per person employed at €60,288 followed by large manufacturing enterprises at €55,126. The Services sector accounted for more than half (56.7%) of all Wages & Salaries in the Irish business economy.
Total Purchases, Employement, and Turnover
Total purchases amounted to €682.9 billion in 2021, of which SMEs accounted for €278.3 billion. The Services and Industrial sectors accounted for 39.3% and 34.3% of total purchases respectively, while Construction accounted for 3.9%.
There were 571,642 people working for 12,436 foreign-owned multinationals operating in Ireland in 2021. These enterprises had turnover of €798.8 billion and GVA of €266.7 billion. In comparison, there were 356,594 Irish-owned enterprises, which had 1,456,706 persons employed, turnover of €310.3 billion, and GVA of €104.2 billion.”