The vast majority of the enterprises in the economic sectors examined employed less than 250 persons and had an annual turnover of not more than 50 million Euro in 2021. Thus they belonged to the SMEs. This was true for 99.3% of the total of 3.2 million enterprises. The greater majority of them, namely 2.6 million enterprises, were so-called micro-enterprises which employed not more than nine persons and whose annual turnover did not exceed 2 million Euro. Only some 20.800 enterprises were assigned to the category of large enterprises.
SMEs play an important role as regards employment. Around 56% of the total of about 38.4 million persons employed in the economic sectors covered worked in SMEs. The proportion of persons employed in micro-enterprises amounted to 19%, while 21% worked in small and 17% in medium-sized enterprises.