Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits

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Counts of actively trading businesses, rates of entry to and exit from the market sector of the economy, and rates of business survival

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Reference period
July 2020 - June 2024

Key statistics

At 30 June 2024 there were 2,662,998 actively trading businesses in the Australian economy, with 999,161 of these businesses being employing.

In 2023-24 there was a: 

  • 2.8% or 73,125 increase in the number of businesses
  • 16.8% entry rate, with 436,018 entries
  • 14.0% exit rate, with 362,893 exits

Discontinuation of experimental quarterly series

This will be the last release of the experimental quarterly series of Counts of Australian Businesses, Entries & Exits. 

From the August 2025 release, this publication will no longer include:

  • Data cube 12 (Quarterly Counts of Australian Businesses, entries and exits, experimental estimates)
  • Data cube 13 (Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, time series and seasonally adjusted).

All other datacubes will continue to be published as normal.

The ABS is continuing its modernisation journey through the Big Data Timely Insights Phase 2 program.  Part of this program is the development of a new Business Characteristics Asset, which will replace the current source of data for the CABEE publication.  The Business Characteristics Asset will enable the ABS to provide additional data on small businesses and more timely insights on business formation and resilience, which will progressively replace the Counts of Australian Businesses, Entries and Exits publication over the next several years.

Entries and exits

The number of actively trading businesses in this release differs from the total number of entities with an Australian Business Number (ABN).

A table of the conceptual and practical basis of counts is published in the Methodology publication detailing how these counts differ.

Industry

In 2023-24 the three industries with the largest percentage increase in businesses were:

  • Transport, Postal and Warehousing (increase of 8.5% to 237,506 businesses)
  • Health Care and Social Assistance (increase of 7.7% to 199,763 businesses)
  • Financial and Insurance Services (increase of 4.8% to 129,031 businesses)

The industries with the largest percentage decrease in businesses in 2023-24 were:

  • Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (decrease of 1.3% to 172,248 businesses)
  • Retail Trade (decrease of 0.2% to 156,938 businesses)
     

States and territories

In 2023-24 there was a:

  • 25,488 increase in the number of businesses in New South Wales, the largest net increase in any state/territory
  • 18,503 increase in the number of businesses in Victoria
  • 1,239 increase in Australian Capital Territory, and 8,698 increase in Western Australia, with both having the largest percentage increase at 3.5%

All states and territories showed a growth in business counts.

Institutional sector

In 2023-24 there was a:

  • 7.3% (7,033) increase in financial corporations to a total of 103,090 businesses
  • 4.3% (50,901) increase in non-financial corporations to a total of 1,230,472 businesses
  • 1.2% (15,370) increase in households to a total of 1,327,734 businesses

Households accounted for 49.9% of all businesses, the largest of any institutional sector.

Type of legal organisation

In 2023-24 total companies showed the largest net growth among types of legal organisations, showing a 5.4% (58,688) increase to 1,153,149 businesses in total, with 185,819 entries.

There was also a:

  • 4.1% (9,130) decrease in partnerships to 213,919 total
  • 2.4% (18,941) increase in sole proprietors to 803,687 total

Employment size

In 2023-24 the number of non-employing businesses increased by 4.9% (78,144), with a net movement of 33,783 surviving businesses from employing to non-employing.

There was also a:

  • 5.7% (3,655) increase in businesses with 20-199 employees to 68,214 total
  • 6.0% (294) increase in businesses with 200+ employees to 5,189 total
  • 1.4% (9,909) decrease in businesses with 1-4 employees to 693,558 total
     

Turnover

In 2023-24:

  • 91.6% of businesses had turnover of less than $2 million
  • 24.2% of businesses had turnover of less than $50,000
  • Businesses with turnover of $2m or more increased by 6.4% (13,426 businesses)
  • The $10 million or more turnover size range showed the largest percentage change, increasing by 6.6%, driven largely by the movement of 6,254 businesses out of the $5m to less than $10m turnover size range

Interactive map

Change in counts of businesses 2023-24 by Local Government Areas

This interactive map displays the percentage business count change in Local Government Areas (LGAs) between 2023 and and 2024. Percentage of business count change is divided into 6 data classes:

  • 50 or more (dark green)
  • 25 to less than 50 (green)
  • 1 to less than 25 (light green)
  • No change (yellow)
  • Decrease (orange)
  • Not for publication (grey)

This map shows that the LGAs with the largest net change in 2023-24 were generally located in or around Australia's capital cities.

Accessibility statement: We are committed to providing information and services to the widest possible audience. We’ve designed this website to comply with the Australian Government Digital Service Standard and aim to meet the latest WCAG Guidelines which describe how to make web content more usable and accessible for everyone. However, some functions of this interactive map may be inaccessible, or difficult to use with assistive technology. All data underlying this map can be downloaded in table format from the Data downloads section of this publication. For further information or assistance, or to advise of accessibility issues with this product, please email client.services@abs.gov.au.

Source

Counts of Australian Businesses, Entries and Exits, 2023-24

Quarterly experimental counts

In the March quarter 2025 there was a:

  • 0.8%, or 20,262 increase in the number of businesses
  • 4.3% entry rate, with 115,068 entries
  • 3.5% exit rate, with 94,806 exits
  • 1.3% (22,579) increase in non-employing businesses and 0.2% (2,317) decrease in employing businesses

For more information on the methodological differences between the quarterly and annual counts, see the Technical note.

Industry subdivision

In the March quarter 2025, the subdivisions with the largest quarterly net increase in businesses were:

  • Postal and Courier Pick-up and Delivery Services (2,760 businesses or 4.2%)
  • Property Operators and Real Estate Services  (2,554 businesses or 0.9%)

The subdivisions with the largest quarterly net decrease in businesses were:

  • Other Store-Based Retailing (185 businesses or 0.2%)
  • Other Goods Wholesaling (121 businesses or 0.7%)

Seasonally adjusted data

There is a strong seasonal pattern in the counts of Total Businesses, Business Entries and Business Exits. To assist in distinguishing between short-term trends and the seasonal patterns, seasonally adjusted counts have been prepared for these headline figures. For more information, see the Methodology.

In the March 2025 quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms, there was a:

  • 0.53%, or 14,300, increase in the number of businesses
  • 4.8% entry rate, with 129,273 entries
  • 4.2% exit rate, with 112,827 exits
Count of businesses, entries and exits, December 2024 and March 2025, Australia
Dec-24Change (%)Mar-25Change (%)
Original
Total Businesses2,674,085-0.72,694,3470.8
Business Entries122,8444.6115,0684.3
Business Exits142,0735.394,8063.5
Seasonally Adjusted
Total Businesses2,688,6380.552,702,9380.53
Business Entries123,7884.6129,2734.8
Business Exits108,1084112,8274.2

Trend estimates are not calculated for these series as they require the irregular component to be accounted for and this cannot be accurately estimated.

Data downloads

Download all (39.47 MB)

Annual data cubes

Data cube 1 tables 1-16 are released in August.

Data cube 1 tables 17-20 and data cubes 2-11 are released in December.

Data files
Download all (441.52 KB)

Quarterly data cubes

Quarterly and seasonally adjusted data is released in February, May, August and December.

Data files

  • Data cube 12: Quarterly Counts of Australian Businesses, entries and exits, experimental estimates

    Download xlsx [430.13 KB]

  • Data cube 13: Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, time series and seasonally adjusted

    Download xlsx [46.04 KB]

Post-release changes

8 May 2025 - March 2025 quarterly data are being released today.

11 February 2025 - December 2024 quarterly data are being released today.  Data for June 2020 and Sept 2023 to September 2024 quarters were updated to correct an error. The impact is not statistically significant and does not affect any other data.

17 December 2024 - Datacubes 2-11 and tables 17-20 in datacube 1,  September 2024 quarterly data and the interactive map are being released today.

13 September 2024 - Data cube 1 re-released to correct an error.  This error was exclusive to tables 13b and 14b in this data cube. No other data cubes have been affected.

Methodology

Scope

All actively trading businesses in the Australian market sector

Excluding:

  • Reserve Bank of Australia
  • General Government
  • Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households

Geography

Data available for:

  • Australia
  • States and Territories
  • Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2)
  • Local Government Area (LGA)

Source

Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Register (ABSBR)

Collection method

Administrative data collected quarterly or annually for Australian Business Number (ABN) registrations recorded in the Australian Business Register (ABR), and business data from the Australian Tax Office (ATO)

Concepts, sources and methods

Classifications used to compile the data:

History of changes

The total counts of businesses for the 2021-22 financial year have been revised

Full history of changes

View full methodology