SMEs - independent and in enterprise groups
EXPERIMENTAL

Data extracted in April 2025

Planned article update: May 2026

Highlights

SMEs that are part of enterprise groups make only 4.9% of the total enterprises, but employ 17.3% of the workforce, pay 25.6% of the total amount of wages and salaries, and generate more than 23% of value added.

Large dependent enterprises play a dominant role in most industries, with mining and quarrying producing almost 95% of total value added, manufacturing more than 62%, and information and communication more than 60% in the observed countries in 2022.

Almost 5.4% of SMEs are part of an enterprise group. They employ more than 27% of the total SMEs workforce, pay almost 48% of the wages and salaries, and generate 55% of SME net turnover and more than 46% of total value added.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the EU economy, representing over 99% of enterprises in the EU in terms of number. The size of enterprises is typically measured using their employment and turnover, which are often lower for SMEs than for large companies. Other aspects, such as participation in large enterprise groups, can, however, greatly affect the results and success of enterprises, including SMEs.

This article compares the data on SMEs and large enterprises that are independent and the ones that are part of enterprise groups. This comparison is particularly relevant when analysing the performance of SMEs in the economy and for defining policy measures aimed at supporting them. The assumption is that SMEs that belong to enterprise groups (be it domestic or multinational) can benefit from extra financial and organisational support to their activity from their group compared to other independent SMEs, and are therefore, not ‘real’ SMEs^[1].

The analysis presented is based on data received from 13 EU and EFTA countries (Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Norway) on the reference year 2022, as part of a micro data linking (MDL) exercise carried out between Structural Business Statistics (SBS), national statistical business registers (NSBRs) and EuroGroups Register (EGR).

Enterprises by size and group status

The two criteria "size class by employment" and "group status" are interconnected: the larger the enterprise, the greater the likelihood that it is part of an enterprise group, and vice versa.

On average, 95.1% of SMEs are independent from enterprise groups’ organisation, while 80.3% of large enterprises belong to enterprise groups. However, the high proportion of independent SMEs is mainly due to micro enterprises (96.4% are independent) and small ones (75.0%), while medium-sized enterprises contribute with only 41.9% (Table 1).

Table 1

The interesting finding is not about the number of SMEs that are part of enterprise groups, but their economic results and performance indicators.

Even though only 4.9% of the enterprises were SMEs belonging to an enterprise group, they employed 17.3% of the workforce, paid 25.6% of the total amount of wages and salaries, and generated 23.3% of the value added.

Figure 1

Independent SMEs reached very high shares in Greece (99.4%), the Netherlands (98.7%) and Spain (98.1%). The lowest shares were observed in Denmark (64%) and Norway (78.3%). For SMEs belonging to an enterprise group, the highest percentages were recorded in Denmark (35.7%), Norway (21.5%) and Austria (19.3%), while the lowest could be observed in Greece (0.6%), the Netherlands (1.2%) and Spain (1.8%). The highest percentage of large enterprises belonging to an enterprise group was recorded in Denmark (0.3%).

Figure 2

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Performance indicators by size and group status

To analyse the performance of enterprises in relation to size and group status, two indicators have been selected: average wages and salaries (ratio of wages and salaries to the number of employees and self-employed persons; Figure 6) and apparent labour productivity (ratio of value added to the number of employees and self-employed persons; Figure 7).

Figure 6

Figure 7

With the exception of Denmark and Norway, in all the countries both indicators recorded higher values for enterprises belonging to enterprise groups, be it SMEs or large ones. For average wages and salaries, as was the case for apparent labour productivity, enterprise size does not appear to be a determinant factor: in some countries, dependent SMEs show better results, while in others, dependent large enterprises report higher values.

Regarding the average wages and salaries, for independent enterprises the values increase hand in hand with the enterprise size class (in all countries except for Finland). For dependent enterprises, as already mentioned, the size class does not seem to have an impact on the average wages and salaries level. The differences in wages and salaries are in some countries significant: in Italy, for example, the salary in a large independent enterprise is almost twice as high as in an independent SME. Wages and salaries paid by Italian enterprises belonging to an enterprise group, both SMEs and large, are almost 3 times higher than those paid by independent SMEs.

Apparent labour productivity does not seem to be affected by the employment size class of an enterprise. However, it varies significantly depending on the group status, it being consistently higher for dependent enterprises. The higher productivity level can be due to access to better technologies or higher investments in capital, both factors that are more easily accessible due to the presence in an enterprise group.

Enterprises by NACE sections, dimension, and group status

Large dependent enterprises play a dominant role in most industries. The analysis by NACE classification of economic activity, shows that in Section B (“Mining and quarrying”) they produced almost 95% of the total value added, in Section C (“Manufacturing”) more than 62% and in Section J (“Information and communication”) more than 60%.

Large independent enterprises did not have a dominant share in any of the industries. They created 8.5% of value added in Section P (“Education”), 7.3% in Section K (“Financial and insurance activities”), 6.7% in Section R (“Arts, entertainment and recreation”) and 4.9% in Section E (“Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities”).

Dependent SMEs recorded a significant share on the total value added in section L (“Real estate activities”, more than 45%), in Section K (“Financial and insurance activities”, almost 34%), in Section D (“Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply”, above 32%) and in Section G (“Wholesale and retail trade”, above 30%).

Independent SMEs recorded the highest share of value added in Section S (“Other service activities”, 71.6%) followed by Section Q (“Human health and social work activities”, 60.5%), Section P (“Education”), 56.4% and Section I (“Accommodation and food service activities”, 56%).

Figure 8

A focus on SMEs by group status

Almost 5.4% of SMEs are part of an enterprise group in the observed countries. However, dependent SMEs employ 27.6% of the total SMEs workforce, they pay 47.8% of the wages and salaries paid by SMEs, they generate 55.3% of the SMEs’ net turnover and 46.4% of the total value added.

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The analysis of data from the micro data linking (MDL) exercise shows that enterprise size alone is not sufficient to explain business performance. The combined use of size, along with the new "group status" breakdown, allows for a more effective explanation of an enterprise’s behaviour and provides a better basis for investigating SMEs in Europe.

Why is this data collection important?

Statistics' users need additional criteria in business statistics in order to better capture the presence of SMEs in the single market and to correctly monitor the effectiveness of targeted economic measures. One the relevant aspects for this purpose is the economic independence of SMEs with respect to large enterprise groups, be it domestic or multinational (their group status).

The availability of EuroGroups Register micro data in the European Statistical System makes it possible to introduce the “group status” as an additional criterion to analyse and classify the “independence” of enterprises. It allows users to gain new insights about their economic performance and how this is influenced by participation in larger enterprise groups (domestic or multinational).

Using the available EGR information on group status in combination with criteria of employment, enterprises can be further classified as

independent (if they do not belong to any enterprise group) or
dependent (if they do belong to an enterprise group, be it a domestic or multinational).

The assumption is that, irrespective of their size in terms of employment, dependent enterprises may benefit from significant advantages (operational, economic, and commercial synergies; access to financial resources; economies of scale; risk reduction; access to new markets) if they are part of an enterprise group.

This additional criterion combined with the size class based on employment can significantly improve the analysis of SMEs and their real characteristics. The identification of independent Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is key for policymakers when planning targeted financial support and research programmes to increase their economic resilience.

SMEs are fundamental within the European economy, providing a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship and contributing to economic growth, employment, and competitiveness in Europe. Given that small and medium-sized enterprises are so important for the European economy, they are at the centre of EU development policies.

The European Commission aims to create a favourable environment for entrepreneurship and growth, enabling SMEs to reach their full potential. To this purpose, the category of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises is identified not only by employment (fewer than 250 persons) but also by annual turnover (not exceeding €50 million) or an annual balance sheet total (not exceeding €43 million).

In addition to these size criteria, the European Commission, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and SMEs, has recently published a User guide to the SME definition (European Commission, 2020), where it is reiterated that “In determining whether an enterprise is an SME, the enterprise’s size (employees, turnover, and balance sheet total) is not the only factor that should be taken into account. In fact, an enterprise can be very small in these terms, but if it has access to significant additional resources (e.g. because it is owned by, linked to or partnered with a larger enterprise), it might not be eligible for SME status. For enterprises with a more complex structure, a case-by-case analysis may therefore be required to ensure that only those enterprises that fall within the ‘spirit’ of the SME Recommendation are considered SMEs”. The availability of data on the participation in enterprise groups in the national statistical business registers and in the EuroGroups register allows for further breakdown of the SMEs by group status.

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Source data for tables and graphs

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Data sources

This micro data linking exercise focused on linking the available statistical information from the following data sources:

the Structural business statistics (SBS)

the National Statistical Business Registers (national BRs)

the EuroGroups Register (EGR)

The SBS describe the detailed structure, economic activity, and performance of businesses over time. The SBS data collection has a very good coverage in terms of size classes of enterprises and their economic activity. Thus, this source provides the most comprehensive picture of the European economy, both at country and EU level.

The National Statistical Business Registers (national BRs): register of businesses at national level, of which a common core is harmonised pursuant to this Regulation, as a basis for the preparation and coordination of surveys and as a source of information for the statistical analysis of the business population and its demography, for the use of administrative data, and for the identification and construction of statistical units.

The EuroGroups register (EGR) is the source of the multinational enterprise (MNE) groups data. It produces data in yearly cycles and covers microdata on the MNE groups and their consisting enterprises and legal units. It serves statistical purposes only. Access to EGR data is restricted to national statistical institutes and national central banks that produce official statistics in the EU Member States and EFTA countries. The EGR aims to register all multinational enterprise groups that have enterprises in EU Member States or EFTA countries, including European and non-European MNE groups. EGR does not cover all-resident enterprise groups – neither those that consist of enterprises only in 1 country, nor independent enterprises.

Context

Recently, at European level, some experimental statistics have been disseminated to sketch the effects of the enterprise groups’ organisation on some Structural Business Statistics (SBS) variables. A first Statistics Explained article, Economic indicators of enterprises belonging to multinational enterprise groups was published in April 2025. The analysis was based on data collected from 14 EU and EFTA countries that used a Micro Data Linking (MDL) technique between SBS, the national statistical business registers (NSBR) and the EuroGroups Register (EGR) to derive and link the necessary information. The analysis showed clearly that belonging or not to a group of enterprises has relevant effects on the number of employees and self-employed persons, wages and salaries, value added, net turnover and gross operating surplus, and thus information on a group status can be used to create additional fundamental breakdowns to understand the structure and performance of businesses operating in the EU and EFTA economic area. This article further investigates the relationships between the group status of an enterprise and its size class (taking into account only the employment criteria) in Structural Business Statistics (SBS). This additional breakdown allows one to further capture the characteristics of enterprises and provides new insights on the organisation of SMEs and their independence versus their participation in large enterprise groups’ organisations. This last aspect also has an impact on their economic performance.

For the first time, by utilising information on enterprise group structures available in the EGR, NSIs can consider the aspect of being part of a group when compiling certain selected indicators of SBS. This approach refines the identification of SMEs, ensuring that in future, only independent ones could be clearly classified as such.

Footnotes

↑ See also EU Recommendation 2003/361defining micro, small and medium-sized enterprises

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Legislation

Regulation (EEC) No 696/1993 of 15 March 1993 on the statistical units for the observation and analysis of the production system in the Community (Summary)
Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on European business statistics, repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1197 of 30 July 2020 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European business statistics repealing 10 legal acts in the field of business statistics

[1] See also EU Recommendation 2003/361defining micro, small and medium-sized enterprises

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SMEs - independent and in enterprise groupsEXPERIMENTAL