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Overview

Business Statistics Overview

Online ISSN: 2009-6895
CSO statistical publication, , 11am
Advisory Note

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.

Main Indicators for all Business Sectors, 2021

Table 1.1 shows the main variables for NACE sectors B to S (excluding O and S94), i.e. Industry (B-E), Construction (F), Distribution (G), and Services H-S (excl. O and S94) for 2021. Our previous release Business in Ireland 2021 - Summary Results provided data for NACE sectors B to N (excluding K), R92, R93, S95, and S96, i.e. Industry (B-E), Construction (F), Distribution (G), and Services (H to N (excluding K), R92, R93, S95, and S96).

Table 1.1 Main indicators for all business sectors, 2021
  Industry  Construction Distribution Services Total
Active enterprises No.20,595 70,459 48,394 229,582 369,030
Persons employed1No.271,263 170,446 383,020 1,203,619 2,028,348
Average persons employed per enterpriseNo.13.2 2.4 7.9 5.2 5.5
Turnover€m380,843 36,221 193,935 498,093 1,109,092
Production value €m303,024 35,291 47,675 432,704 818,694
Gross value added (GVA)€m157,588 8,853 27,740 176,696 370,877
    of which; Gross operating surplus (GOS)€m141,615 3,303 14,660 122,958 282,536
                      Personnel costs €m15,973 5,550 13,080 53,738 88,341
Personnel costs as % of GVA%10.1% 62.7% 47.2% 30.4% 23.8%
GVA per person employed2580,943 51,939 72,426 146,804 182,847
GVA as % of Turnover%41.4% 24.4% 14.3% 35.5% 33.4%
GOS as % of Turnover%37.2% 9.1% 7.6% 24.7% 25.5%
Source: CSO Structural Business Statistics
1Persons employed includes employees, proprietors, and family members.
2GVA per person employed calculated using GVA values rounded to €'000.

Key Variables by Sector

The Structural Business Economy had more than 369,000 active enterprises in 2021. The Services sector accounted for the largest proportion of these enterprises at 62.2%, followed by Construction (19.1%), Distribution (13.1%), and Industry (5.6%).

There were more than 2,028,300 persons employed in these four sectors in 2021. More than 1,203,600 persons were employed in Services, compared with more than 383,000 in Distribution, almost 271,300 in Industry and more than 170,400 persons in Construction.

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Active enterprises
Industry5.6
Construction19.1
Distribution13.1
Services62.2
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Persons employed
Industry13.4
Construction8.4
Distribution18.9
Services59.3

In 2021, Ireland generated turnover of €1,109.1 billion. Services accounted for 44.9% of this turnover followed by Industry with 34.3%. The Distribution and Construction sectors generated turnover of 17.5% and 3.3% respectively.

Of the total €370.9 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) generated in Ireland in 2021, Services accounted for €176.7 billion (47.6%) and Industry €157.6 billion (42.5%). Distribution and Construction combined accounted for the remaining 10% of total GVA generated.

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Turnover
Industry34.3
Construction3.3
Distribution17.5
Services44.9
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GVA
Industry42.5
Construction2.4
Distribution7.5
Services47.6