Small business in Western Australia at a glance
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![A graph showing businesses by size in Western Australia. The graph explains that 96.9% of all businesses are classified as small (this includes 62.8% are non-employing businesses), 2.9% of businesses are medium size and 0.2% are large.](/sites/default/files/2024-04/sbdc-infographic-business-by-size-2023-2024.png)
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![Key small business numbers graph. The graph illustrates that there are 238,907 small businesses in WA (including non-employing businesses), 154,847 non-employing businesses in WA and a total of 2,519,637 small businesses in Australia.](/sites/default/files/2024-04/sbdc-infographic-key-small-business-numbers-2023-2024.png)
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![Location of small businesses in WA graph. The graph shows that 76% of small businesses in WA are in the Perth metro area and 24% are in regional Western Australia.](/sites/default/files/2024-04/sbdc-infographic-location-of-small-businesses-2023-2024.png)
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![WA small businesses by industry graph. The graph shows that 16.9% of businesses are in construction, 12.5% are in professional, scientific and technical services, 11.1% are in rental, hiring and real estate services, 9% are in transport, postal and warehousing, 6.4% are in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 37.4% are combined other industries.](/sites/default/files/2024-04/sbdc-infographic-businesses-by-industry-2023-2024.png)
Notes on statistics
- Statistics as of 30 June 2023.
- Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics - Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits.
- 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.
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