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:
- 85% of enterprises employ 5 or less full time equivalent staff
- 96% of enterprises employ 19 or fewer staff (N.B. these figures exclude most of agriculture and some industries within business, community, recreational and personal services, which include many SMEs and economically insignificant enterprises).
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Figure 2 - Number of Enterprises by Size
| The number of SMEs is increasing... | The number of enterprises in the SME sector increased 6.6 percent in the year to February 1998, following an increase of 5.4 percent in the previous year. These compare with increases of 6.3 percent and 5.2 percent for all businesses over the same periods. |
| ...led by the rise in the number of small firms | The enterprise size group that experienced the greatest level of growth was those employing 0-5 FTEs, with an increase of 7.4 percent in the year to February 1998, following an increase of 6.0 percent in the previous year. This increase was somewhat offset by negative growth observed amongst several other size groups over the year to February 1998, as illustrated in table 1.
The contribution made by enterprises with 0-5 FTEs to the total number of enterprises in New Zealand continues to increase, rising from 83.3 percent in 1996 to 84.0 percent in 1997 and most recently to 84.8 percent in 1998. |
Table 1. - Annual Percentage Increase in Numbers of Enterprises (years to February)
Enterprise Size | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 |
| 0-5 FTE | 3.7 | 6.0 | 7.4 |
| 6-9 FTE | 2.2 | 0.7 | -0.7 |
| 10-19 FTE | 1.8 | 1.9 | 3.4 |
| 20-49 FTE | 5.7 | 1.8 | -0.4 |
| 50-99 FTE | 3.6 | 0.3 | 1.6 |
| 100+ FTE | 3.6 | 1.8 | -1.1 |
| Total | 3.6 | 5.2 | 6.3 |