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Large exporting enterprises were the most reliant on markets abroad with an export intensity of 85.5% in 2017
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| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| Micro | 55.2 | 60 | 61.1 |
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| Small | 49.7 | 59.2 | 56.1 |
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| Medium | 60.9 | 54.9 | 62.8 |
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| SMEs | 56.1 | 57.5 | 60.6 |
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| Large | 83.8 | 83.5 | 85.5 |
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- Large enterprises had the highest export intensity with 85.5% of their €294.6 billion turnover in 2017 coming from exports.
- SMEs made up the vast majority of exporters with 10,239 enterprises in 2017. This represented 97.4% of all exporting enterprises.
- The combined turnover for SMEs in 2017 was over €141.1 billion of which 60.6% was accounted for by exports. This was an increase from 57.5% in 2016 and 56.1% in 2015. See Figure 4.1 and Table 4.1.
percent
| X-axis label | Not very reliant | Slightly reliant | Reliant | Very reliant |
| Micro | 44.3 | 20.8 | 10.7 | 24.3 |
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| Small | 53.2 | 18.1 | 10.6 | 18.1 |
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| Medium | 39 | 21.6 | 14.1 | 25.3 |
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| Large | 25.6 | 15.5 | 18.1 | 40.8 |
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Large enterprises were the most reliant on exports in 2017
- Large exporting enterprises were the most reliant size class on exports with nearly 60% of the 277 large exporting enterprises either reliant (export intensity 50%<75%) or very reliant (75% and over) on exports for turnover in 2017.
- Small enterprises were the least reliant size class in 2017 with over 70% of the 2,080 exporters either not very reliant (5%< 5%) or slightly reliant (25%<50%) on exports.
- Most exporters were micro enterprises. Of the 7,313 micro exporting enterprises, 1,774 had an export intensity greater than 75%. This represented the highest number of enterprises of any size class in 2017.
- There were 376 small enterprises and 214 medium enterprises which had an export intensity of greater than 75% in 2017. See Figure 4.2 and Table 4.2.
normal
| Turnover from non-exports | Turnover from exports - Goods | Turnover from exports - Services |
| 2015 | 48.671 | 35.513 | 26.599 |
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| 2016 | 51.199 | 41.176 | 27.985 |
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| 2017 | 55.657 | 43.991 | 41.497 |
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There were 10,239 exporting SMEs in 2017
- Exporting SMEs had a combined turnover of €141.1 billion in 2017 of which 60.6% was attributed to exports.
- Exports of Goods accounted for just over half (51.5%) of all exports.
- There were 154,345 persons engaged in exporting SMEs in 2017. See Figure 4.3 and Table 4.3.
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| | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
| UK | 17.7 | 16.1 | 15.7 |
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| Rest of EU | 24 | 24.6 | 24.7 |
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| US | 12.3 | 16.1 | 17.8 |
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| Rest of World | 20.1 | 20 | 22.9 |
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The UK was the destination with the highest number of exporting SMEs in 2017
- There were 10,239 exporting SMEs in Ireland in 2017, 8,432 of which exported to the UK, the most of any destination.
- The turnover associated with SMEs who exported to the UK was €117.1 billion.
- These enterprises attributed 15.7% of their turnover to UK exports.
- 5,372 SMEs exported to the rest of EU member states of which 24.7% of these enterprises’ turnover came from exports to these member states, the highest export intensity by destination.
- Export intensity to the UK declined from 17.7% in 2015 to 15.7% in 2017.
- This is in contrast with the corresponding values for export intensity to the United States which increased from 12.3% to 17.8% over the same period. See Figure 4.4 and Table 4.4.
Table 4.1 Export intensity by size class, 2015 - 2017
Table 4.2 Exporting enterprises by reliance on exports and size class, 2017
Table 4.3 Sources of turnover for exporting SMEs, 2015 - 2017
Table 4.4 SME export intensity by destination, 2015 - 2017
