Foreign-Owned Enterprises Produced More Than Half of Non-Financial Goods and Services in 2014
Over 99% of business in Ireland are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), however these generate less than half (49.6%) of the Gross Value Added (GVA) in the Irish economy, while foreign-owned enterprises account for more than half the GVA in the Irish non-financial business economy, according to CSO’s Business in Ireland 2014, published on Thursday.
The publication, based on Business Demography data and Structural Business surveys, outlines key statistics for the Irish business economy in 2014. The data also revealed that the top 50 Irish enterprises by value, generated 40% of value added in 2014.
New Businesses
The number of new business “births” in 2014 were recorded as 16,256, more than any year since 2009. New businesses were recorded as having a 85% survival rate after one year in business, and a 65% change after years in business. New enterprise “deaths” were recorded at 20,080 in 2013, however, this figure includes all businesses that dies between 2008 and 2014. Most new enterprises were in the services sector (8,734) though a large increase was recorded in the construction industry (3,526 from 2,473 in 2013), and a small fall in new financial and insurance enterprise births.
SMEs
The data also recorded that large enterprises employed over 31% of all persons engaged in 2014 and accounted for 0.2% of total number of enterprises. Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 99.8% of total number of enterprises in 2014 and nearly 69% of all persons engaged. SMEs generated 56.1% of total Turnover in the business economy and just under 50% of Gross Value added was attributed to these enterprises.
Micro enterprises, defined as businesses with less than ten people engaged, accounted for 92.3% of all enterprises in 2014. Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 7.5% of the total number of enterprises, while Large enterprises accounted for the remaining 0.2%. Micro enterprises accounted for just 28% of persons engaged, despite the fact that they had the highest number of enterprises. Small and Medium enterprises accounted for 41% of total persons engaged in 2014.
SMEs accounted for just under half of all Gross Value Added in the Business Economy in 2014 with micro enterprises contributed 24.3% of total GVA. Construction had the largest share of its persons engaged in Small and Medium enterprises in 2014, at 92.4%. Unlike other sectors, the majority of employment for the Financial and Insurance sector, 68%, came from Large enterprises.
Read the full report here.
