Micro , Small , and Medium Enterprises Around the World : How Many Are There , and What Affects the Count ?

MSME Country Indicators record the number of formally registered MSMEs across 132 economies. This database is current as of August 2010 and expands on the January 2007 “Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises: A Collection of Published Data” edition. The new data can be found at http://www.ifc.org/msmecountryindicators More specifically, the MSME Country Indicators database contains information on the following: • The total number of formal MSMEs in the economy and the number of MSMEs per 1,000 people (MSME density); • A breakdown into micro, small, and medium enterprises based on the number of employees, where such data is available, or based on other variables such as annual sales;1 • The formal MSME share in total employment; • The income group of the economy based on GNI per capita, based on the World Bank Atlas method (from the World Development Indicators); • Time series data going back 20 years for some economies, for the following variables: the number of formally registered MSMEs, MSME density, breakdown by size of MSMEs, and MSME share in total employment; and • Estimates of the number of MSMEs in the informal sector for 16 economies.