Only 0.2 % of enterprises in the EU are large…
In the EU in 2015, a total of 23.5 million non-financial enterprises existed, 98.7 % of which were small (0-49 employed persons), 1.0 % were medium (50-249 employed persons) and only 0.2 % were large (250 employed persons and over). Among small enterprises, the ones that had less than 10 persons employed accounted for 93 % of the total number of enterprises. Among the Member States, the share of small, medium and large enterprises were largely identical in 2015.
…but they generate 33 % of employment and 44 % of total value added
However, when looking at the number of persons employed in the EU, small enterprises provided work for about half the workforce in 2015, while 17 % were employed in medium-sized enterprises and a third in large. Regarding value added, 38 % of value added came from small enterprises, 19 % from medium sized and 44 % from large enterprises.
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This information is part of the new digital publication "The European economy since the start of the millennium — a statistical portrait".
In this publication you can discover answers to questions such as: How has our consumption behaviour changed? How has household income evolved? Are people’s working patterns still the same? What is the share of services in the economy? What is the proportion of large enterprises? Has government employment increased or decreased?
There are many more interactive visualisation tools available in the publication - click and check them out now!
This news is published on the occasion of the ‘Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day’ which takes place on 27 June. For more information, see the website of the United Nations.