1. SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED
ENTERPRISES 2013
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
C W Mobbs
November 2013
2. Introduction
• For the purposes of this analysis, small and medium sized
enterprises are defined as those with less than 250
employees (large enterprises have 250+)
• Small enterprises have less than 50 employees; medium
ones between 50 and 249
• An enterprise is defined as a profit, non-profit or
government organisation
Data Source: Department for Business Innovation and Skills ‘Business Population Estimate for
the UK and Regions, 2013’, unless otherwise stated.
3. SMEs
• UK SMEs accounted for 99.9% of all private sector enterprises,
59.3% of private sector employment and 48.1% of private sector
turnover
• Enterprises comprising one employee director and self
employed owner-managers alone accounted for 75.3% of all
enterprises, 16.6% of employment and 6.4% of turnover
• Small enterprises alone accounted for 99.2% of all enterprises,
47.0% of employment and 33.1% of turnover
• Turnover in SMEs is estimated at £1,578 bn, £49 bn (3.2%)
higher than 2012
4. UK Enterprises (1)
• There are 4,984,085 enterprises in the UK economy
• Of these, 98.2% are private sector organisations, realising
93.4% of whole economy turnover
• A further 0.2% are Central or Local Government, employing
16.4% of total employment and 1.6% are non-profits,
employing 5.6% of total employment
5. UK Enterprises (2)
Enterprises Employment Turnover
All enterprises 4,984,085 31.3 m £3,513 bn
Private sector 98.2% 77.7% 93.4%
Central and
Local
Government
0.2% 16.4% 4.6%
Non-profit
Organisations
1.6% 5.6% 2.0%
6. Private Sector Enterprises
Numbers
• 75.3% of enterprises have no
employees (ie, consist of
sole director or self-employed
owner-manager)
• 0.06% of organisations have
more than 500 employees
• Small enterprises account for
99.2% of enterprises and
medium enterprises for 0.6%
No of
Employees
Enterprises
4,895,655
0 75.3%
1-9 20.2%
10-49 3.8%
50-249 0.6%
250-499 0.1%
500+ 0.1%
7. Employees by Enterprise
(1)
16.6% of all employment is in enterprises
comprising a sole director or self-employed owner-manager
8. Employees by Enterprise (2)
• Total employment stands at 24.3 m
• 16.6% of total private sector employment is in
enterprises comprising sole directors or self-employed
owner-managers
• Small business with between 1 and 49 employees
account for 30.4% of total employment
• Medium sized enterprises account for a further 12.3%
• Large companies account for 40.7%
9. Enterprises and Turnover
(1)
Turnover of large enterprises accounts for
51.9% of all private sector turnover
10. Enterprises and Turnover
(2)
• Total private sector turnover amounts to £3,280.0 bn
• Despite having 75.3% of all private sector enterprises,
organisations with a sole director or self-employed owner-manager
only produced 6.4% of turnover
• Small business with between 1 and 49 employees account
for 26.8% of total turnover
• Medium sized enterprises account for a further 15.0%
• Large companies account for 51.9%