Over 22,000 new businesses opened their doors in Ireland in 2017 - CSO

More than 22,000 new businesses opened in Ireland in 2017.

The number increased by over 47% since 2012, according to the Central Statistics Office.

Meanwhile, more than 14,000 businesses ceased trading in 2016.

SMEs accounted for 99.8% of total number of enterprises in 2017 and generated 50.2% of total turnover in the business economy and almost 39% of Gross Value Added was attributed to these enterprises.

Large enterprises of 250 employees or more employed almost 32% of all persons employed in 2017 and accounted for 0.2% of total number of enterprises.

Micro enterprises with less than 10 employees accounted for 92.1% of all enterprises in 2017 and small and medium enterprises of 10 to 49 employees and 50 to 2549 employees accounted for 7.7% of the total number of enterprises.

Large enterprises accounted for the remaining 0.2%.

Gross Value Added per person engaged averaged €137,382 for all enterprises in the Irish non-financial business economy in 2017, while Irish-owned enterprises averaged €66,054.

Small enterprises reported GVA per person in 2017 of €56,981, while Medium enterprises reported GVA per person of €77,224.

GVA per person for Large Irish-owned enterprises was just over €95,400 but rose to €295,665 when foreign-owned Large enterprises were included.

More than 325,000 people were employed by foreign multinationals in 2017, with the companies generating a combined turnover of €386 billion euro.

Wages and salaries accounted for 89.7% of personnel costs for the total business economy in 2017.

Personnel costs are defined as the total remuneration, in cash or in kind, payable by an employer to an employee.

Personnel costs include taxes and employees' social security contributions, as well as the employer's compulsory and voluntary social contributions.

Construction accounted for the largest number of active enterprises with 57,255 enterprises active in 2017.

The smallest sectors were Mining & quarrying and Electricity, gas, etc which accounted for just 1,088 enterprises combined.

Retail trade accounted for the largest number of persons employed with over 225,000 in 2017, followed by manufacturing which had just under 220,000 persons employed.