7 facts about Australian businesses
Counts of Australian Businesses - 2024-2025 financial year
1. Australia now has more than 2.7 million businesses
The number of Australian businesses rose by 2.5 per cent or 66,650 to 2,729,648.
2. More people having a go
Australians started 437,150 new businesses and ended 370,500 businesses. Both these figures were higher than 2023 and 2024.
3. WA leads the way
Western Australia had the fastest growing count of businesses, with a 4.3 per cent rise, or 10,877 more businesses. The next fastest was Queensland with 2.7 per cent, or 13,579 more businesses.
4. Business owners set up shop in the Sunshine State
More businesses moved their operations to Queensland, than to any other state or territory, with 1,250 entities shifting there from other states and territories.
5. Health care industry sees biggest growth
The industries with the highest growth in business counts were:
- Health Care and Social Assistance, growing by 6.6 per cent
- Transport Postal and Warehousing, up by 5.1 per cent
6. Construction businesses through the roof
Construction saw 76,414 new businesses, the highest number across all industries.
7. We are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Partnerships have not seen a rise in any year since 2002, the first year of the publication to include business types. Partnership businesses saw a drop of -4.3 per cent, or 9,226 fewer businesses in 2024-25.
Media notes
- The criteria for a business to be counted in our collection is defined in our Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits methodology.
- Counts by Geographic areas and ANZSIC classes will be published later this year. They will be added as an update to this release (2024-25).
- When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.
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