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For more information on this release:
E-mail: sbs_rap@cso.ie Mr Gerard Doolan (+353) 21 453 5130 Mr Andrew Murray (+353) 21 453 5122 Mr Paul Murphy (+353) 21 453 5201
For general information on CSO statistics:
information@cso.ie (+353) 21 453 5000 On-line ISSN 2565-5337
CSO statistical release, , 11am

Structural Business Statistics

2015

Structural Business Statistics, 2013 - 2015
     Percentage change
  2013201420152014 - 20152013 - 2015
Enterprises No. 253,517249,377260,2674.42.7
Persons Engaged No. 1,253,4511,299,6361,368,2005.39.2
Turnover €m421,882460,555601,12630.542.5
Gross Value Added€m113,846121,894182,33149.660.2
Structural Business Statistics include all Industrial, Services & Distribution and Construction enterprises in Ireland.

Turnover in Industry, Services, Distribution & Construction sectors up 30.5% to €601.1 billion in 2015

Figure 1: Turnover Structural Business Economy
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  • The number of enterprises in the Structural Business Economy was up 4.4% annually to 260,267 in 2015
  • The number of persons engaged showed a greater annual increase up 5.3% in 2015, to 1,368,200 persons
  • Between 2013 and 2015, the number of persons engaged in the Structural Business Economy has increased 9.2%, an overall increase of 114,749 persons
  • Total turnover in the business economy increased 30.5% between 2014 and 2015, bringing the value to €601.1bn in 2015, which was largely driven by increases in the industrial sector
  • Gross Value Added, which represents the value of goods and services produced in the economy, was €182.3bn across all business sectors in 2015. This was a 49.6% annual increase and a 60.2% increase since 2013. See Headline Table


This release provides details of the individual surveys in the Structural Business Economy i.e. Census of Industrial Production, Annual Services Inquiry and the Building & Construction Inquiry. It will also analyse these sectors by size class of enterprise and nationality of ownership.  

Note:Industry data was revised in November 2017, for further information contact Business Statistics, Results, Analysis & Publications at sbs_rap@cso.ie

Industry

Table 1 Industry
      Percentage change
  201320142015 2014 - 2015
Enterprises No. 16,54016,49717,1764.1
Persons Engaged No. 200,991210,545221,7975.3
Turnover €m119,345127,366233,804 83.6
Gross Value Added€m41,16542,92095,025 121.4

Significant increases in the value of Industrial Production in 2015

  • Industrial Gross Value Added in Ireland more than doubled from €42.9bn in 2014 to €95.0bn in 2015, an annual increase of 121.4%
  • The number of Industrial enterprises in Ireland in 2015 was 17,176, an annual increase of 4.1% 
  • The number of persons engaged in Industrial Production in Ireland in 2015 increased by 5.3% to 221,797
  • Turnover in the Industrial sector in Ireland increased 83.6% to €233.8bn in 2015. See Figure 2 and Table 1
TurnoverGross Value Added
2013119.34541.165
2014127.36642.92
2015233.80495.025
  • Large Industrial enterprises employed 45.4% of total persons engaged in 2013 and this figure rose to 46.6% in 2015
  • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) employed 54.6% of total persons engaged in 2013. This figure fell slightly to 53.4% in 2015
  • In 2015 Large enterprises reported a yearly increase in the number of persons engaged of 7.8% to 103,421. This brought the total increase to 13.3% since 2013 
  • The numbers of persons engaged in Industrial SMEs rose by 3.3% from 2014 to 2015 and by 7.9% since 2013 to 118,376 in 2015. See Figure 3
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
201391303109688
201495903114642
2015103421118376
  • Gross Value Added in Large Industrial enterprises increased from €30.4bn in 2014 to €81.4 bn in 2015, an annual rise of 168.1%
  • Industrial SMEs experienced an increase in GVA from €12.6bn in 2014 to €13.6bn in 2015, an annual increase of 8.5%
  • In 2015, the split for Industrial GVA between Large enterprises and SMEs was 86:14 in favour of Large enterprises. See Figure 4
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
201324.35116.815
201430.35912.561
201581.39513.629

Services and Distribution

Table 2 Services and Distribution
      Percentage change
  201320142015 2014 - 2015
Enterprises No. 188,475185,531192,545 3.8
Persons Engaged No. 961,338989,2311,037,683 4.9
Turnover €m292,540318,981351,964 10.3
Gross Value Added€m68,46773,35481,108 10.6

Increases in Services and Distribution sectors

  • The Services and Distribution sectors reported an annual increase in GVA of 10.6% from €73.4bn in 2014 to €81.1bn in 2015
  • The year on year change in Services and Distribution turnover was 10.3%, up to €352.0bn in 2015 from €319.0bn the previous year
  • The number of enterprises in these two sectors increased by 3.8% from 185,531 in 2014 to 192,545 in 2015
  • In 2015 the year on year change in the number of persons engaged showed a 4.9% increase from 989,231 to 1,037,683. See Figure 5 and Table 2.
TurnoverGross Value Added
2013292.5468.467
2014318.98173.354
2015351.96481.108
  • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 74.1% of total Services and Distribution persons engaged in 2015
  • Persons engaged in SMEs rose by 4.6% to 768,550 in 2015 from 734,865 in the previous year
  • Persons engaged in Large enterprises increased by 5.8% from 254,366 in 2014 to 269,133 in 2015. See Figure 6 and Table 2
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
2013250642710696
2014254366734865
2015269133768550
  • Gross Value Added for Small and Medium Enterprises rose by 21.2% to €52.4bn in 2015 from €43.2bn in the previous year
  • GVA for Large enterprises dropped by 4.6% from €30.1bn in 2014 to €28.7bn in 2015
  • GVA for all Services and Distribution enterprises in Ireland in 2015 was €81.1bn, an annual increase of over €7.7bn. See Figure 7 and Table 2
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
201325.35143.116
201430.12443.23
201528.72852.38

Building and Construction

Table 3 Building and Construction
      Percentage change
  201320142015 2014 - 2015
Enterprises No. 48,50247,34950,546 6.8
Persons Engaged No. 91,12299,860108,720 8.9
Turnover €m9,99714,20815,358 8.1
Gross Value Added€m4,2145,6206,198 10.3

Construction GVA shows an annual increase of over 10%

  • In 2015 there was an annual increase in GVA of 10.3% from €5.6bn in 2014 to €6.2bn
  • The year on year change in Construction turnover showed an increase of 8.1% up from €14.2bn in 2014 to €15.4bn in 2015
  • In 2015 the number of Construction enterprises increased by 6.8% from 47,349 in 2014 to 50,546
  • The year on year change showed that the number of persons engaged in these enterprises rose 8.9% from 99,860 to 108,720. See Figure 8 and Table 3
TurnoverGross Value Added
20139.9974.214
201414.2085.62
201515.3586.198
  • Persons engaged in SMEs rose by 11.3% to 102,690 in 2015 from 92,289 in the previous year
  • Persons engaged in Large enterprises dropped by 20.4% from 7,571 in 2014 to 6,030 in 2015. See Figure 9 and Table 3

 

Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
2013462886494
2014757192289
20156030102690
  • Gross Value Added for SME enterprises rose by 9.6% to €5.6bn in 2015 from €5.1bn in the previous year
  • Large enterprises reported an increase in GVA, which rose by 17.1% from €479m in 2014 to €561m in 2015
  • GVA for all Construction enterprises in Ireland in 2015 totalled €6.2bn. See Figure 10 and Table 3
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
20130.1624.053
20140.4795.141
20150.5615.637

Irish enterprises employed more in SMEs while Foreign owned enterprises employed more in Large enterprises in 2015

  • Over 70% of employment in Irish owned industrial enterprises was in SMEs
  • The reverse is true of foreign owned industrial enterprises, where 78.3% of all persons engaged were employed in Large enterprises.
  • Employment in Irish owned Services and Distribution enterprises was also concentrated in SMEs with small and medium sized enterprises responsible for 81.1% of all persons engaged
  • Two-thirds, 67.4% of employment in foreign owned Services and Distribution enterprises was in Large enterprises.  See Figure 11
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
Industry - Irish29.970.1
Industry - Foreign78.321.7
Building and Construction - Irish4.995.1
Building and Construction - Foreign*00
Services and Distribution - Irish18.981.1
Services and Distribution - Foreign67.432.6

Large Industrial enterprises generated 91.6% of GVA in foreign owned enterprises

  • Irish owned enterprises were more evenly split with 60.1% of GVA coming from SMEs and 39.9% generated by Large Industrial enterprises
  • In the Construction sector, Irish owned SMEs accounted for 92.7% of GVA with the remaining 7.3% from Large enterprises
  • Most GVA, 78.7% in Irish owned Services and Distribution enterprises came from SMEs, while foreign owned enterprises in these sectors generated 65.7% of their GVA from Large enterprises. See Figure 12
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
Industry - Irish39.960.1
Industry - Foreign91.68.4
Building and Construction - Irish7.392.7
Building and Construction - Foreign*00
Services and Distribution - Irish21.378.7
Services and Distribution - Foreign65.734.3

Background Notes

The background notes and detailed methodology for the three individual surveys used to compile the The Structural Business Statistics release can be found as follows:

Census of Industrial Production

Annual Services Inquiry

Building & Construction Inquiry

 

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