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Australia had 2,741,087 actively trading small businesses at 30 June 2026, using the ABS definition of fewer than 20 employees. They made up about 97.4% of the 2,814,778 businesses in the statistical population. Most had no employees.
Compiled by SMBLoan from ABS and ASBFEO material; this is not an ASBFEO publication. The latest observation differs by topic. A June 2026 business count is not combined with an older employment or value-added estimate and described as one 2026 dataset.
How many small businesses are in Australia?
| Employment size | Active businesses, June 2026 |
|---|---|
| No employees | 1,818,575 |
| 1–4 employees | 689,600 |
| 5–19 employees | 232,912 |
| Small businesses, total | 2,741,087 |
| 20–199 employees | 68,325 |
| 200+ employees | 5,366 |
| All sizes | 2,814,778 |
Source: ABS Counts of Australian Businesses, July 2022–June 2026, released 18 August 2026. Small-business totals above add the zero-to-19 employee groups. Percentages calculated from exact counts may differ from the whole percentages in summaries.
A non-employing business is not necessarily a sole trader. “Non-employing” describes staffing; “sole proprietor” describes legal structure. Companies, partnerships and trusts can also have no employees. The distinction matters when estimating a market or interpreting personal-liability risks. See the ABS methodology for the classification used in the earlier series.
The ABS population also differs from all registered ABNs. An ABN can remain registered without the entity being actively trading within the statistical scope. Do not substitute the ABN register’s total for the business count in this table.
Entries, exits and growth
During 2025–26,460,461 businesses entered the ABS population and 375,331 exited. The net increase was 85,130, or 3.1%. Those flows are much larger than the net change. They do not tell us that every new business obtained finance or that every exit resulted from insolvency.
For a lender or supplier, a growing number of firms can mean a larger potential market, but business counts do not measure purchasing power. Revenue, industry, location and legal structure may be more relevant to the decision than the national total.
Small business employment
ASBFEO’s employment page reports that small businesses employed more than 5 million people, or 39% of private-sector employment in the selected industries, in 2023–24. That observation is older than the June 2026 business count. The underlying ABS industry series excludes financial and insurance services. ASBFEO employment source and scope.
Counting employees and counting businesses are different exercises. A large population of non-employing businesses can make small firms dominant by business number while their share of measured employment is much lower. Neither statistic makes the other inconsistent.
Economic contribution: value added and GDP
ASBFEO’s July 2025 report gives small-business industry value added of $595.990 billion for 2023–24, representing 32% of the selected private-industry total. Although the report discusses contribution to GDP, its table has a defined industry scope. We retain that qualification instead of treating the figure as a directly comparable share of every part of national GDP. Read the source table.
Value added is not revenue, cash in owners’ bank accounts or tax paid. A business’s sales include inputs purchased from other firms, so adding sales across all businesses would count some economic activity more than once. The measure is useful for understanding production, with the source’s industry exclusions kept visible.
Turnover bands use a separate observation period
| Annual turnover | Businesses in June 2024 |
|---|---|
| Under $50,000 | 644,604 |
| $50,000 to under $200,000 | 864,086 |
| $200,000 to under $2 million | 931,592 |
These are the three bands displayed in ASBFEO’s August 2025 business-count report; they describe June 2024, not June 2026. They do not comprise every turnover band, and are not automatically the same population as the under-20 employee definition. A turnover-defined tax concession can use a different test from an employment-defined statistic.
Business survival rates
Of businesses entering in 2022–23,49.2% remained active at June 2026. This is a cohort measure, not the percentage of today’s businesses predicted to survive the next three years. It also does not mean that every other entrant went bankrupt. The business survival atlas provides full industry, state and employment-size tables and the underlying counts.
Women who own small businesses
ASBFEO’s March 2026 statement cites Census data showing women accounted for 35% of small-business owners and more than half a million women described running a small business as their main job. The publication date does not turn the Census measure into a 2026 ownership census. ASBFEO source.
Owner counts and business counts are not interchangeable: businesses can have several owners, and an owner may be involved in more than one business. Use a consistent denominator when discussing ownership, finance access or representation.
Finance and lending
Population statistics cannot show who is eligible for a loan. For dated evidence on borrowing rates, commitments, payment delays and collateral, use our small-business lending statistics. The source period and population are shown beside each measure so a loan-rate average is not mistaken for a product quote or an approval rate.
Method and publication notes
We checked the linked sources on 10 October 2026. The headline count uses the August 2026 ABS release; employment, value added, turnover and ownership retain the periods available in their cited sources. We removed the earlier page’s conflicting 2020–2023 headline totals and untraceable survey claim rather than combining unlike periods into a fresh-looking total.
The download records each measure, value, unit, period and source. For publication, cite the individual observation and its date, not just this page’s revision year. The ABS and ASBFEO data portals can contain subsequent releases; this page’s retrieval date is not a claim of continuous monitoring.
Sources, citation and reuse
Data period: Mixed periods, individually labelled. Business count, employment, value added and ownership have different denominators.
Download the data and source notes (CSV). Original downloads used by earlier editions have been retained where available. Keep each file’s observation period with any citation.
Cite: SMBLoan, “Australian Small Business Statistics”, revised 10 October 2026, /australian-small-business-family-enterprise-report. For source questions or a correction, contact hello@smbloan.com.au.
Original SMBLoan charts may be reproduced with attribution and a link. Government and other third-party data remain subject to the original source’s terms; this page does not grant rights over third-party material. Please keep the observation period and methodological limits with any excerpt.