Facts and statistics

Small business in Western Australia - at a glance

View the information below in an accessible version, or click on each image to see the related accessible data.

Graph representing the % of businesses that are classified small

 Image showing figures of small businesses in Australia and Western Australia
Image showing 75% of small businesses are based in Perth Graph showing WA small businesses by industry
Image of a table respresenting small businesses as a percentage of all businesses by industry Image showing $38.7BN was contributed to the economy by smll businesses
Image showing 1 in 10 WA small business export to international markets Image showing small business employs 512000 people

Notes on 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. 
  • These statistics are provided by the ABS, except for data marked with a * which has been sourced from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre report The Engine Room for Growth? The Role, Performance and Future Prospects of Small Business in Western Australia.
  • As with any analysis based on data sets it is subject to a degree of error. Individual numbers or percentages shoul not be used as absolutes.