8161.0.55.001 - Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Register, Counts of Businesses - Summary Tables, Jun 2004  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 07/10/2005  Ceased
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MEDIA RELEASE

October 07, 2005
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
110/2005

ABS reports more than 3 million businesses

There were just over 3 million businesses in Australia as at June 2004, with the vast majority (72%) being non-employing businesses, according to an analysis released today.

Of the employing businesses, 90% had fewer than 20 employees.

The largest proportions of businesses were in the "Property and Business Services" (24%) and "Construction" (15%) industries. Just over one-third (35%) of all Australian businesses had their head office in New South Wales.

Estimates contained in this Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) release of Business Register, Counts of Businesses are the most suitable for analysis of total counts of Australian businesses and counts by region, industry and business size. This product will ultimately become the best source for analysis of growth in numbers of businesses, previously included in Small Business in Australia (cat. no. 1321.0) which will no longer be released.

The ABS produces a number of counts of businesses, based on different concepts, scopes and definitions. The differences in these estimates reflects the different purposes they serve. For further information refer to Information Paper: A Statistical View of Counts of Businesses in Australia (cat. no. 8162.0).

More details are in Business Register, Counts of Businesses (cat. no. 8161.0.55.001).