Number of SMEs
New Zealand is predominantly a nation of small firms
Small and medium sized enterprises constitute the majority of all private sector enterprises in New Zealand:
- 86.9% of enterprises employ 5 or less full time equivalent staff
- 97.3% of enterprises employ 19 or fewer staff.
Given the large number of SMEs and enterprises not fulfilling the "economically significant" criteria within the agricultural sector (and other omitted industry segments), the contribution that smaller businesses make to the New Zealand economy is even greater than is reflected in these figures.
Figure 2: Number of Enterprises by Size
The number of SMEs decreased in 2001...
The number of SMEs decreased 3.7 percent in the year to February 2001, following a rise of 9.5 percent in 2000. This closely matches the decrease of 3.5 percent for the total number of firms in 2001, after a rise of 9.4 percent in the year to February 2000.
...although the proportion of SMEs has remained relatively constant
As the decrease in the number of SMEs was only slightly greater than that for enterprises overall, the proportion of firms in the SME sector remained fairly constant from 2000 to 2001, decreasing only slightly from 96.5 to 96.4 percent.
Table 1: Annual Percentage Change in Numbers of Enterprises (Years to February)
| | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 |
|---|
| 0-5 FTEs | 6.0% | 7.4% | -1.2% | 10.0% | -4.3% |
| 6-9 FTEs | 0.7% | -0.7% | 2.7% | 6.5% | 1.5% |
| 10-19 FTEs | 1.9% | 3.3% | 2.0% | 5.4% | 0.5% |
| 20-49 FTEs | 1.8% | -0.4% | 4.4% | 6.0% | -0.3% |
| 50-99 FTEs | 0.3% | 1.6% | -3.7% | 3.9% | -1.2% |
| 100+ FTEs | 1.8% | -1.1% | 0.8% | -0.2% | 2.7% |
| Total | 5.2% | 6.3% | -0.7% | 9.4% | -3.5% |
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