Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits

In 2019-20 three industries accounted for more than half of the net annual increase in businesses, these were:

• Transport, postal and warehousing
• Professional, scientific and technical services
• Health care and social assistance

In 2019-20 there was a:

• 3.8% increase in the number of businesses in Tasmania, the largest of any state/territory, with an increase of 1,500 to 40,955 total.
• 3.0% increase in the number of businesses in Victoria, with an increase of 19,491 to 660,214 total.
• 0.5% increase in the number of businesses in Western Australia, the lowest of any state, with an increase of 1,156 to 234,103 total.

In 2019-20 households accounted for 52.3% of all businesses, the largest of any institutional sector.

There was a:

• 2.7% increase in non-financial corporations, with an increase of 25,404 to 963,863 total.
• 1.4% increase in households, with an increase of 17,335 to 1,267,789 total.

Almost two-thirds (64.1%) of businesses in the household institutional sector were in the following industries:

• Agriculture, forestry and fishing
• Construction
• Transport, postal and warehousing
• Rental, hiring and real estate services
• Professional, scientific and technical services

In 2019-20 companies had the largest net growth of any type of legal organisation, increasing by 25,678 businesses.

There was a:

• 3.5% increase in sole proprietors, with an increase of 23,292 to 687,571 total.
• 3.3% decrease in partnerships, with a decrease of 8,115 to 240,016 total.
• 21.0% entry rate for sole proprietors, with 139,323 entries.

 
Five industries accounted for more than 90% of the growth in sole proprietors during 2019-20, these were:

• Transport, postal and warehousing
• Professional, scientific and technical services
• Administrative and support services
• Health care and social assistance
• Other services

In 2019-20 the number of employing businesses decreased by 1.0%, with more than 72,000 surviving employing businesses becoming non-employers.

There was a:

• 12.3% decrease in businesses with 20-199 employees, with an decrease of 6,683 to 47,649 total.
• 5.3% decrease in businesses with 200 or more employees, decreasing by 231 to 4,160 total.
• 3.8% increase in non-employing businesses, increasing by 55,933 to 1,546,865 total.

In four of the five industry classes with the highest net growth in 2019-20, non-employing businesses accounted for more than 70% of total businesses:

• Other transport support services n.e.c (ANZSIC 5299)
• Non-residential property operators (ANZSIC 6712)
• Courier pickup and delivery services (ANZSIC 5102)
• Building and other industrial cleaning services (ANZSIC 7311)
   

In 2019-20:

• 93.0% of businesses had turnover of less than $2 million.
• 28.4% of businesses had turnover of less than $50,000.
• 79.8% of exits had turnover of less than $200,000.

There was a:

• 3.3% increase in businesses with turnover between $5 million and $10 million, with an increase of 1,107 to 34,548 total.
• 2.6% increase in businesses with turnover of $10 million or more, with an increase of 956 to 38,209 total.

 
Five industries accounted for more than 70% of growth in businesses with turnover between $5 million and $10 million, these were:

• Construction
• Retail trade
• Financial and insurance services
• Rental, hiring and real estate services
• Professional, scientific and technical services

Interactive map

This map uses data contained in Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, June 2015 to June 2019

• Navigating topics: maps can be selected via the drop-down menu (mobile devices) or the tabs (larger screens).
• Search: the search icon opens the search function. It is set to look for locations such as addresses, suburbs and postcodes contained within an SA2 or LGA.
• Data: on each map, an SA2 or LGA region can be selected to view the underlying data. Data for all SA2s and LGAs can be found in the Data downloads section of this publication.
• If the maps do not load successfully, please try refreshing this page.

• Local Government Area boundaries are the standard geographical areas of incorporated local government councils. Statistical Area 2 boundaries are presented according to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), 2016. For more information see the Statistical Geography page of the ABS website or the following: Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.001); Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Volume 3 - Non-ABS Structures, June 2020 (cat. no. 1270.0.55.003).
• Units in the profiled population are not included in LGA or SA2 level geography.
• For businesses in the non-profiled population, the main business address of a business relates to the physical address where the main business activity takes place.
• Businesses can operate in more than one geographical location and be represented by a single ABN. These are referred to as multi-location businesses. For the purposes of this release, multi-location businesses are attributed to one geographical classification to prevent double counting of businesses. The individual locations of businesses with multiple sites are not available. The issues of geocoding multi location businesses are more pronounced in counts at smaller geographies, as multi location businesses will only be attributed to a single SA2/LGA. As such, it cannot be assumed that business counts (or main industry) at each geographical level reflect all business operations within that geography.
• Detailed data information is available in the Methodology.

If you would like to provide feedback on this publication, or participate in an external user review of the annual CABEE publication in March 2021, please email: business.register@abs.gov.au.

This release previously used catalogue number 8165.0.

23 February 2021: An interactive map that allows users to explore business counts data at the Local Government Area (LGA) and Statistical Area 2 (SA2) geographical levels is being released today.

19 February 2021: Data cubes 10 and 11 were re-released to correct an error. This error was exclusive to these data cubes. No other data cubes have been affected.

7 September 2021: Table 15 in data cube 1 was re-released to correct an error. This error was exclusive to these data cubes. No other data cubes have been affected.