24 Mar Growth in business numbers across Australia

The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) annual estimates of actively trading businesses has revealed fascinating insights into business growth in Australia.  In the year to 30 June 2022, across all States and Territories, businesses numbers have grown by 167,646 to total 2.57 million.

This marks a significant net change compared to previous years, with substantial growth in business entries and only minor increases in the number of business exits.  While numbers of business entries typically increase by around 350,000 a year, the 2021-2022 period saw 472,731 business entries across Australia.  Overall, total businesses have increased by 7.0%, eclipsing both the 2020 and 2021 growth rates of 3.8% and 2.0% respectively.

Industries that saw the most significant growth in business numbers included:

• Construction (+33,452)
• Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (+16,595)
• Transport, Postal and Warehousing (+16,530)

With the largest percentage growth experienced by:

• Administrative and Support Services (14.7% increase to a total of 122,344)
• Other Services (12.9% increase to a total of 129,049)
• Arts and Recreation Services (10.0% increase to a total of 37,078)

The smallest relative growth was experienced by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector which increased by only 1.4% or 2,384 to 175,333 in total.

States and Territories

All States and Territories experienced a growth rate of more than 4% with the largest increases in business numbers seen in Victoria (+71,444), New South Wales (+45,121) and Queensland (+25,302).  The largest percentage growth was in Victoria (10.9%), Australian Capital Territory (7.7%) and Northern Territory (5.7%).

Business Size

The overwhelming majority of businesses in Australia continue to be small or very small.  Over 97% employ less than 20 people, with the largest overall growth to June 2022 seen in non-employing businesses, which made up 140,102 (83.6%) of the total increase.

A breakdown of business size by employment shows that:

• 60.3% are non-employing
• 28.4% employ 1 – 4  
• 8.8% employ 5 – 19
• 2.3% employ 20 – 199
• 0.2% employ over 200

In terms of revenue it is the higher turnover companies that have experienced the most relative growth with all turnover ranges above $2 million increasing by a minimum of 12%.  The ABS observes that this is primarily driven by the increase in businesses with turnover between $2 million and $5 million which has seen an increase of 12,712 businesses.

The percentage of businesses by turnover is as follows:

• 27.2% of businesses have an annual turnover between $0 – $50k
• 32.1% have a turnover between $50k – $200k
• 33.3% have a turnover between $200k – $2m
• 4.2% have a turnover between $2m – $5m
• 1.5% have a turnover between $5m – $10m
• 1.7% have a turnover of over $10m

Following the release of this data, our clients’ public regional profiles have now been updated with the latest business count estimates for their regions and they can be viewed by searching our Region Explorer application. More regional economic information can also be accessed on our Data Explorers page on the REMPLAN website.

Please contact the team at REMPLAN if you have any further questions regarding the latest business count data, or would like to discuss how we can assist you with any economic and demographic analysis matters more broadly.