Food and Beverage Service Enterprises in Ireland by Size: CSO Figures 2019 to 2024

The CSO's table BRA31 gives 168,741 "Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises" in 2024 for "Food and Beverage Service Activities (I56)", across 16,783 "Active Enterprises". Of those enterprises, 12,641 are in the "Under 10" size class, which is 75.3% by our arithmetic. The "Under 10" class holds 40,970 of the persons engaged, or 24.3%, also ours. The table has no separate figure for cafés.

How many Active Enterprises in Food and Beverage Service Activities (I56) have under 10 persons engaged?

The CSO counts 12,641 of 16,783 "Active Enterprises" in the "Under 10" class in 2024, the latest year. That is 75.3%, which is our arithmetic.

The other classes are 2,458 in "10 - 19" (14.6%), 1,324 in "20 - 49" (7.9%), 323 in "50 - 249" (1.9%) and 37 in "250 and over" (0.2%). The shares are ours. The CSO labels the dimension "Employment Size", and the classes are persons engaged size classes. We use the CSO's labels and do not say what the activity includes beyond them.

How are Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises split by size?

The CSO gives 168,741 "Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises" in 2024: 40,970 in "Under 10", 33,056 in "10 - 19", 38,856 in "20 - 49", 27,745 in "50 - 249" and 28,114 in "250 and over".

As shares, which are ours, that is 24.3%, 19.6%, 23.0%, 16.4% and 16.7%. So the "Under 10" class holds 75.3% of Active Enterprises and 24.3% of Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises. We give both as figures and no reason for the difference, because the table gives none. For money rather than headcount, see our page on hospitality jobs and earnings.

How does 2024 compare with 2019?

The "Under 10" class had 12,641 "Active Enterprises" in 2024 against 11,959 in 2019, which is 5.7% more by our arithmetic. Its share of all Active Enterprises went from 76.8% (11,959 of 15,576) to 75.3% (12,641 of 16,783), also ours.

For persons engaged, the "Under 10" class had 40,970 in 2024 against 40,028 in 2019. In 2019 that was 26.5% of 151,175 Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises, and in 2024 it is 24.3% of 168,741. The CSO's table BRA31 carries this note: "From 2022 non market-producers are excluded from Business Demography. This methodology was applied to 2021 in a revision." We quote it as published and draw nothing from it.

How many Enterprise Births were in the Under 10 class?

The CSO's "Enterprise Births" in the "Under 10" class were 1,672 in 2024, out of 1,868 in all. That is 89.5%, which is our arithmetic.

The table leaves some cells blank for other classes. We do not fill them or estimate them, so we give no births figure for the other classes. For births across the years, see our page on enterprise births and deaths.

Where do these numbers come from?

They come from the CSO's Business Demography table BRA31, updated 6 October 2026. We took the rows for "Food and Beverage Service Activities (I56)", by the dimension "Employment Size", for 2019 to 2024, and we read the table on 23 October 2026. The statistics are "Active Enterprises", "Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises" and "Enterprise Births".

You can download the figures as a CSV. If you cite it: Cupán Studio, from CSO table BRA31, read 23 October 2026.

Food and Beverage Service Activities (I56), 2024, CSO table BRA31. Shares are ours.

Employment Size	Active Enterprises	Share of Active Enterprises	Persons Engaged in Active Enterprises	Share of Persons Engaged
Under 10	12,641	75.3%	40,970	24.3%
10 - 19	2,458	14.6%	33,056	19.6%
20 - 49	1,324	7.9%	38,856	23.0%
50 - 249	323	1.9%	27,745	16.4%
250 and over	37	0.2%	28,114	16.7%
All persons engaged size classes	16,783		168,741

Sources

• Central Statistics Office, table BRA31, Business Demography NACE Rev 2, updated 6 October 2026, read 23 October 2026.

Figures from CSO table BRA31, read 23 October 2026; shares and changes are ours; counts as published. A summary of published statistics, not financial advice. Cupán Studio builds websites for cafés in Ireland.