Number of SMEs
New Zealand is predominantly a nation of small firms.
Small and medium sized enterprises constitute the majority of all enterprises in New Zealand:
- 86% of enterprises employ 5 or fewer full-time equivalent staff.
- 96.8% of enterprises employ 19 or fewer full-time equivalent staff.
- 20% of enterprises do not employ any FTEs.
Given the large number of SMEs and enterprises not fulfilling the "economically significant" criteria within the agricultural sector (ANZSIC Code A01 - Agriculture - is omitted from this report), the contribution that small businesses make to the New Zealand economy is even greater than is reflected in these figures.
Figure 1: Number of Enterprises by Size, as at February 2003
→ Full size version of Figure 1 [33KB GIF file]
The number of SMEs increased in 2002…
The number of SMEs increased 4.9 percent between 2002 and 2003, following an increase of 2.7 percent between 2001 and 2002. This is similar to the movements in number of firms of all sizes over the same periods. The total number of enterprises rose from 281,338 in 2002 to 294,954 in 2003.
…although the proportion of SMEs has remained relatively constant.
As the increase in the number of SMEs was close to that for enterprises overall, the proportion of firms in the SME sector remained constant at 96.8 percent between 2002 and 2003.
Figure 2: Cumulative Enterprise Count by FTE Size Category, as at February 2003
→ Full size version of Figure 2 [40KB GIF file]
Table 1: Annual Percentage Change in Numbers of Enterprises, as at February 2003| FTEs | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | Average Percentage Change |
| 0 | 20.5% | 1.1% | 22.8% | 9.2% | 9.5% | 8.4% | 11.9% |
| 1-5 | 7.8% | 0.9% | 8.1% | -3.0% | 0.8% | 3.7% | 3.1% |
| 6-9 | 0.3% | 2.9% | 5.9% | 1.7% | 3.0% | 5.6% | 3.2% |
| 10-19 | 4.1% | 2.2% | 5.0% | 1.2% | 2.8% | 5.5% | 3.4% |
| 20-49 | 0.1% | 4.6% | 5.7% | 0.6% | 1.8% | 4.3% | 2.8% |
| 50-99 | 2.2% | -3.1% | 4.7% | -1.3% | 6.4% | 4.8% | 2.3% |
| 100-499 | -0.2% | 2.4% | -0.1% | 3.5% | 2.3% | -0.4% | 1.3% |
| 500+ | 0.9% | -3.3% | 0.0% | 1.5% | 6.7% | 7.6% | 2.2% |
| Total | 8.6% | 1.2% | 9.9% | -0.3% | 2.7% | 4.8% | 4.5% |
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