Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
SMEs in the Netherlands - Statistics & Facts
Small and medium sized enterprises, or 'mkb' (midden- en kleinbedrijven) in Dutch, include enterprises which employ fewer than 250 employees, with micro enterprises employing zero to nine employees, small enterprises employing 10 to 49 employees and medium enterprises employing 50 to 249 employees. Despite often not being included in the name, micro enterprises are also included in this category. SMEs play a very significant role in the Dutch economy as these micro enterprises amount to almost 1.4 million enterprises in the Netherlands, compared to almost 49,100 small and 10,000 medium sized enterprises. On the other hand, there were only 1,100 large enterprises, meaning there were over one thousand times as many micro enterprises as large enterprises. When looking at the trends of SMEs, a tendency of growth can be seen in the Netherlands, especially of micro enterprises as they have more than doubled in the past 15 years. The consultancy, research and other specialized business services sector had the most SMEs at over 401,000.
