New Zealand Business Demographic Statistics: As at February 2004
16 December 2004
Number of Businesses Continues to Grow
There was a 9.9 percent increase in the number of businesses as at February 2004 compared with February 2003, according
to Statistics New Zealand. Business numbers.
There were 324,293 New Zealand businesses in February 2004. This is an increase of 9.9 percent from February 2003,
following a 4.8 percent increase in the previous year. Property and business services was the largest industry by number
of businesses, representing over a third of all enterprises in New Zealand. The increase in the number of enterprises in
this industry contributed over half of the overall change.
New Zealand businesses engaged 1.64 million employees in February 2004. Business size Sixty-five percent of businesses
in New Zealand were non-employing. Forty-five percent of these non-employing businesses were involved in the property
and business services industry. Ninety-six percent of businesses engaged fewer than 20 employees.
However, these businesses only accounted for 29 percent of the total number of employees in New Zealand. Less than 1
percent of enterprises in New Zealand had 100 or more employees. However, these businesses accounted for 47 percent of
the total number of employees in New Zealand. Regional statistics
Business numbers increased in all regional council areas in February 2004. Thirty-five percent of business locations in
New Zealand operated in Auckland in February 2004. The number of business locations in Auckland increased by 10,881 in
February 2004.
The number of business locations in the rest of the North Island increased by 11,805 in February 2004. The number of
business locations in the South Island increased by 7,914 in February 2004.
ENDS