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For more information on this release:
E-mail: business_stats@cso.ie Mr Gerard Doolan (+353) 21 453 5130 Ms Stephanie Kelleher (+353) 21 453 5123 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

2016

Structural Business Statistics, 2014 - 2016
     Percentage change
  2014201520162015 -20162014 -2016
Enterprises No. 249,377260,267262,2040.75.1
Persons Engaged No. 1,299,6361,368,2001,444,4255.611.1
Turnover €m460,555600,7131644,9757.440.0
Gross Value Added€m121,894181,9521190,9344.956.6
Structural Business Statistics include all Industrial, Services & Distribution and Construction enterprises in Ireland.
1Revised.

Turnover in Industry, Services, Distribution & Construction sectors up 7.4% to €645.0 billion in 2016

Figure 1: Turnover Structural Business Economy, 2014 - 2016
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  • The number of enterprises in the Structural Business Economy increased by 0.7% to 262,204 in 2016.
  • The number of persons engaged rose by 5.6% in 2016, to 1,444,425 persons.
  • Between 2014 and 2016, the number of persons engaged in the Structural Business Economy has increased 11.1%, an overall increase of 144,789 persons.
  • Total turnover in the business economy increased 7.4% between 2015 and 2016, bringing the value to €645.0 billion in 2016, which was largely driven by increases in the Services and Distribution sectors.
  • Gross Value Added, which represents the value of goods and services produced in the economy, was €190.9 billion across all business sectors in 2016. This was a 4.9% annual increase and a 56.6% increase since 2014. 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.

Industry

Table 1 Industry
      Percentage change
  201420152016 2015 - 2016
Enterprises No. 16,49717,17617,555 2.2
   of which; SME (<250)16,34017,01017,3802.2
                   Large (250+)1571661755.4
Persons Engaged No. 210,545221,797235,352 6.1
   of which; SME (<250)114,642118,376121,9213.0
                   Large (250+)95,903103,421113,4319.7
Turnover €m127,366233,804227,154 -2.8
   of which; SME (<250) 39,77240,89241,570 1.7
                   Large (250+) 87,595192,913185,583 -3.8
Gross Value Added€m42,92095,02593,264 -1.9
   of which; SME (<250)12,56113,62915,01710.2
                   Large (250+) 30,35981,39578,247 -3.9

Persons engaged in Industrial sector up 6.1% in 2016

  • The number of persons engaged in Industrial Production in Ireland in 2016 increased by 6.1% to 235,352.
  • Industrial Gross Value Added fell 1.9% from €95.0 billion in 2015 to €93.3 billion in 2016.
  • Turnover in the Industrial sector decreased 2.8% to €227.2 billion in 2016. See Figure 2 and Table 1.
TurnoverGross Value Added
2014127.36642.92
2015233.80495.025
2016227.15493.264
  • The number of persons engaged in Large Industrial enterprises increased at a faster rate compared to SMEs.
  • In 2014, Large enterprises accounted for 45.5% of all persons engaged, whereas in 2016, this figure had increased to 48.2%.
  • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) employed 54.5% of total persons engaged in 2014. This figure fell in 2015 and again in 2016 to 51.8%.
  • The number of persons engaged in Industrial SMEs rose by 3.0% from 2015 to 2016 to 121,921 and by 6.3% since 2014. See Figure 3.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
201495903114642
2015103421118376
2016113431121921
  • Industrial SMEs experienced an increase in GVA from €13.6 billion in 2015 to €15.0 billion in 2016, an annual increase of 10.2%.
  • In 2016, the split for Industrial GVA between Large enterprises and SMEs was 84:16 in favour of Large enterprises.
  • Gross Value Added in Large Industrial enterprises decreased from €81.4 billion in 2015 to €78.2 billion in 2016, an annual fall of 3.9%. See Figure 4.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
201430.35912.561
201581.39513.629
201678.24715.017

Services and Distribution

Table 2 Services and Distribution
      Percentage change
  201420152016 2015 - 2016
Enterprises No. 185,531192,545193,081 0.3  
   of which; SME (<250)185,245192,234192,7390.3
                   Large (250+)28631134210.0
Persons Engaged No. 989,2311,037,6831,088,732 4.9
   of which; SME (<250)734,865768,550798,2563.9
                   Large (250+)254,366269,133290,4767.9
Turnover €m318,981351,964398,393 13.2
   of which; SME (<250) 205,655232,606264,833 13.9
                   Large (250+) 113,326119,358133,559 11.9
Gross Value Added€m73,35481,10890,710 11.8
   of which; SME (<250)43,23052,38058,33011.4
                   Large (250+) 30,12428,72832,380 12.7
 
  

Turnover in Services and Distribution sectors increased by over 13% in 2016

  • The Services and Distribution sectors reported an annual increase in Turnover of 13.2% from €352.0 billion in 2015 to €398.4 billion in 2016.
  • Gross Value Added in Services and Distribution increased by 11.8% from €81.1 billion in 2015 to €90.7 billion in 2016.
  • In 2016 the year on year change in the number of persons engaged showed a 4.9% increase from 1,037,683 to 1,088,732.
  • The number of enterprises in these two sectors increased by just 0.3% in 2016. See Figure 5 and Table 2.
TurnoverGross Value Added
2014318.98173.354
2015351.96481.108
2016398.39390.71
  • Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 73.3% of total Services and Distribution persons engaged in 2016.
  • The proportion of GVA that SMEs accounted for in 2016 was 64.3%.
  • Persons engaged in Large enterprises increased by 7.9% from 269,133 in 2015 to 290,476 in 2016. See Figure 6 and Table 2.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
2014254366734865
2015269133768550
2016290476798256
  • Gross Value Added for Large enterprises rose by 12.7% to €32.4 billion in 2016 from €28.7 billion in the previous year.
  • GVA for Small and Medium Enterprises increased by 11.4% from €52.4 billion in 2015 to €58.3 billion in 2016.
  • GVA for all Services and Distribution enterprises in Ireland in 2016 was €90.7 billion, an annual increase of over €9.6 billion. See Figure 7 and Table 2.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
201430.12443.23
201528.72852.38
201632.3858.33

Building and Construction

Table 3 Building and Construction
      Percentage change
  201420152016 2015 - 2016
Enterprises No. 47,34950,54651,568 2.0
   of which; SME (<250)47,33350,53351,5542.0
                   Large (250+)1613147.7
Persons Engaged No. 99,860108,720120,341 10.7
   of which; SME (<250)92,289102,690113,55810.6
                   Large (250+)7,5716,0306,78312.5
Turnover €m14,20814,945119,428 30.0
   of which; SME (<250) 13,09013,44317,395 29.4
                   Large (250+) 1,1181,5022,033 35.4
Gross Value Added€m5,6205,81916,960 19.6
   of which; SME (<250)5,1415,2966,29618.9
                   Large (250+) 479523664 27.0
1Revised.

Construction turnover shows an annual increase 30%

  • In 2016 there was an annual increase in Construction turnover of 30.0% from €14.9 billion in 2015 to €19.4 billion.
  • The year on year change in GVA showed an increase of 19.6% up from €5.8 billion in 2015 to €7.0 billion in 2016.
  • In 2016 the number of Construction enterprises increased by 2.0% from 50,546 in 2015 to 51,568.
  • The year on year change showed that the number of persons engaged in these enterprises in 2016 rose by 10.7% to 120,341. See Figure 8 and Table 3.
TurnoverGross Value Added
201414.2085.62
201514.9455.819
201619.4286.96
  • Persons engaged in SMEs rose by 10.6% to 113,558 in 2016 from 102,690 in the previous year.
  • Persons engaged in Large enterprises increased by 12.5% from 6,030 in 2015 to 6,783 in 2016. See Figure 9 and Table 3.

 

Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
2014757192289
20156030102690
20166783113558
  • Gross Value Added for SME enterprises rose by 18.9% to €6.3 billion in 2016 from €5.3 billion in the previous year.
  • Large enterprises reported an increase in GVA, which rose by 27.0% from €523 million in 2015 to €664 million in 2016. See Figure 10 and Table 3.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
20140.4795.141
20150.5235.296
20160.6646.296

Irish enterprises employed more in SMEs in 2016

  • Almost two thirds, 66.4% of employment in Irish owned industrial enterprises was in SMEs.
  • The reverse is true of foreign owned industrial enterprises, where 74.4% 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 83.0% of all persons engaged.
  • Over two thirds, 68.5% of employment in foreign owned Services and Distribution enterprises was in Large enterprises.  See Figure 11.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
Industry - Irish33.666.4
Industry - Foreign74.425.6
Building and Construction - Irish3.996.1
Building and Construction - Foreign*00
Services and Distribution - Irish1783
Services and Distribution - Foreign68.531.5

Large Industrial enterprises generated 90.0% of GVA in foreign owned enterprises

  • Irish owned Industrial enterprises were more evenly split with 50.8% of GVA coming from SMEs and 49.2% generated by Large Industrial enterprises.
  • In the Construction sector, Irish owned SMEs accounted for 94.4% of GVA with the remaining 5.6% from Large Irish owned enterprises.
  • Most GVA, 83.6% in Irish owned Services and Distribution enterprises came from SMEs, while foreign owned enterprises in these sectors generated 70.0% of their GVA from Large enterprises. See Figure 12.
Large (250+ persons)SME (<250 persons)
Industry - Irish49.250.8
Industry - Foreign9010
Building and Construction - Irish5.694.4
Building and Construction - Foreign*00
Services and Distribution - Irish16.483.6
Services and Distribution - Foreign7030

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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