Strong economic impact of multinational groups

The second round of the micro data linking exercise between EuroGroups Register and structural business statistics highlights the economic significance of multinational enterprise (MNE) groups operating within national economies.

In 2022, independent enterprises accounted for an average of 95.2% of all active enterprises across the 14 countries participating in the exercise (Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and Norway). The remaining 4.8% of enterprises belonged to an all-resident (domestic) enterprise group or a multinational enterprise group (domestically or foreign controlled). These ‘dependent’ enterprises employed on average 47.4% of all people employed in the respective countries.

Source dataset: Eurostat calculations based on Eurogroups Register and SBS data

In addition, dependent enterprises contributed more than 67.6% of wages and salaries and 74.0% of the net turnover. They created 68.1% of the total value added and 69.0% of the gross operating surplus. This pattern, which highlights the economic importance of enterprises belonging to an all-resident or a multinational enterprise group, is observed in all participating countries.

Focusing on the enterprises that belong to an MNE group, even though they represented only 1.2% of all enterprises in the 14 countries, they accounted for 31.3% of the total employment, 49.1% of the total wages and salaries, 58.5% of the net turnover, 52.5% of the value added and 56.4% of the gross operating surplus.