Facts and statistics

Small business in Western Australia - at a glance (as at 30 June 2020)

 
A graph showing businesses by size in Western Australia. The graph explains that 97% of all businesses are classified as small (this includes 65.5% are non-employing businesses), 2.5% of businesses are medium size and 0.2% are large.
 
Key small business numbers graph. The graph illustrates that there are 227,754 small businesses in WA (including non-employing businesses), 153,316 non-employing businesses in WA and a total of 2,361,778 small businesses in Australia.
 
Location of small businesses in WA graph. The graph shows that 77% of small businesses in WA are in the Perth metro area and 23% are in regional Western Australia.
 
WA small businesses by industry graph. The graph shows that 17% of businesses are in construction, 12% are in professional, scientific and technical services, 11% are in rental, hiring and real estate services, 10% are in finance and insurance services, 9% are in transport, postal and warehousing and 42% are combined other industries.

A pie chart showing that small businesses added $54.4billion to the Western Australian economy and a separate statistic showing WA small businesses employed 462,955 people (38.4% of the WA workforce).

Notes on statistics

  • Statistics as of 30 June 2020.
  • In relation to the statistics, the SBDC uses the standard Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) definition of small business, which is any non-employing business or a business employing fewer than 20 people. However, for legal purposes, the definition of a small business is as stated in the Small Business Development Corporation Act 1983.
  • As with any analysis based on data sets it is subject to a degree of error. Individual numbers or percentages should not be used as absolutes
  • Statistics include only those businesses actively remitting Goods and Services Tax (GST). As such, small businesses not registered for GST are not captured in this data. 
  • Notes on value of small business to WA economy:
    • Value of small business to WA economy is an estimate using a revised SBDC model based on previous work undertaken by ACIL Allen using ABS data. All figures are in nominal (ie. in 2019-20 dollars).
    • Total private sector economic activity excludes financial and insurance services and ownership of dwellings.