In 2012, there were 22.3 million enterprises in the EU’s non-financial business economy. Of those, the 92.7% of micro enterprises accounted for 29.2% of employment. In Cyprus, the proportion was 92.3%.

Small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), or those with fewer than 250 employees, accounted for 7.1% of the total and 38.0% of employment in the EU, while 0.2% were large enterprises that accounted for 33.0% of persons employed.

Equivalent data for Cyprus were only available for medium-sized enterprises (between 50 and 249 employees, which accounted for 21.6% of employment.

The EU considers micro-enterprises and SMEs as drivers of the economy, creating jobs and contributing to economic growth.

The sole worker

Among the 14 member states for which data are available, sole entrepreneurs accounted for the largest share of employment in newly born enterprises.

Newly born enterprises without any employee represented 75.9% of total employment in France, 66% in the Czech Republic and 63.8% in the Netherlands.

In Cyprus, the proportion was only 6.1% for zero employees. However, Cyprus scores top for companies with between one and four employees. Here the proportion of employment in newly born enterprises was 53.6% for Cyprus, 52.8% for the UK and 50% for Finland.

Source: InCyprus