Overview - Mittelstand

Small and medium-sized enterprises are the engine of the German economy. This is illustrated by statistical data on the macro-economic significance of SMEs and by SME key indicators for Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia (cf. the table below). The following data are based on SME definition by the European Commission.

Please note that we currently provide only a selection of the most important statistics on our English website.

For further statistics, please refer to our German section.

• In 2024, approx. 3.52 million German enterprises classified as small and medium-sized enterprises, accounting for 99.2% of the total number of enterprises with turnover from goods and services and/or employees.¹
• SMEs generated an annual turnover of approx. 2.80 bn € in 2024, which represents 28.6% of the total turnover of German enterprises.¹
• Approx. 21.8 million employees were employed by SMEs in Germany in 2024, accounting for 54.4 % of total employment.¹
• At the end of 2024, some 68.4% of all apprentices were trained by establishments with less than 250 employees (subject to social insurance contribution).²
• Export turnover of SMEs (trade in goods) added up to approx. 227.1 bn € in 2023, accounting for 20.1% of the total German export turnover.²
• Businesses with less than 250 employees spent 10.05 bn € on in-house R&D, equal to a share of 10.9% in total R&D expenditures in the business sector in 2024.