December 21, 2022

At 30 June 2022 there were 2,569,900 actively trading businesses in the Australian economy.

In 2021-22 there was a:

  • 7.0% or 167,646 increase in the number of businesses, of which 140,102 were non-employing businesses
  • 19.7% entry rate, with 472,731 entries
  • 12.7% exit rate, with 305,085 exits

Industry

In 2021-22 the three industries with the largest percentage growth in businesses were:

  • Administrative and Support Services (with an increase of 14.7% or 15,685 to 122,344 total)
  • Other Services (with an increase of 12.9% or 14,778 to 129,049 total)
  • Arts and Recreation Services (with an increase of 10.0% or 3,382 to 37,078 total)

The industry with the smallest percentage increase in businesses in 2021-22 was:

  • Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (with an increase of 1.4% or 2,384 to 175,333 total)

States and territories

In 2021-22 there was a:

  • 10.9% increase in the number of businesses in Victoria, the largest percentage growth in any state/territory, with an increase of 71,444 to 726,839 total
  • 7.7% increase in the number of businesses in the Australian Capital Territory, with an increase of 2,419 to 33,918 total
  • 4.7% increase in the number of businesses in Tasmania (1,896 to 42,614 total), the lowest percentage growth of any state/territory

Institutional sector

In 2021-22 there was a:

  • 8.9% (7,487) increase in financial corporations, to 91,426 total
  • 7.9% (102,940) increase in households to 1,401,062 total. Households accounted for 54.5% of all businesses, the largest of any institutional sector
  • 5.6% (57,073) increase in non-financial corporations to 1,074,311 total

Type of legal organsiation

In 2021-22 sole proprietors had the largest net growth of any type of legal organisation, increasing by 90,239 businesses, or 12.7% to 798,209 total. This was driven by a 31.0% entry rate for sole proprietors, with 219,515 entries

There was also a:

  • 6.6% (65,600) increase in companies to 1,052,213 total
  • 1.8% (4,189) decrease in partnerships to 231,839 total

Employment size

Employment data in this section was created using annualised employment data typically published in CABEE.

An experimental point-in-time employment indicator to capture short term impacts is available in the datacubes.

In 2021-22 the number of non-employing businesses increased by 9.9% (140,102), with a net movement of 14,978 surviving businesses from employing to non-employing.

There was also a:

  • 5.9% (3,309) increase in businesses with 20-199 employees to 59,355 total
  • 3.0% (6,675) increase in businesses with 5-19 employees to 227,102 total
  • 2.4% (17,395) increase in businesses with 1-4 employees to 728,759 total

Turnover size

In 2021-22:

  • 92.6% of businesses had turnover of less than $2 million
  • 27.2% of businesses had turnover of less than $50,000
  • 81.2% of exits had turnover of less than $200,000
  • There was a large net movement of surviving businesses into the upper turnover size ranges, with businesses having a turnover at or above $200,000 increasing by 61,627 collectively
  • The $5 million to less than $10 million turnover size range showed the largest percentage change, increasing by 14.3%, driven largely by the movement of 11,526 businesses from the $2m to less than $5m turnover size range

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
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