Small and medium enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by many national agencies and international organizations, such as the World Bank, the OECD, the European Union, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). In any given national economy, SMEs outnumber large companies by a wide margin and also employ many more people. On a global scale, SMEs make up 90% of all companies and account for more than 50% of all employment. For example, in the EU, 99% of all businesses are SMEs. Australian SMEs makeup 98% of all Australian businesses, produce one-third of the total gross domestic product (GDP), and employ 4.7 million people. In Chile, in the 2014 commercial year, 98.5% of firms were classified as SMEs. In Tunisia, self-employed workers alone account for about 28% of total non-farm employment, and firms with fewer than 100 employees account for about 62% of total employment. U.S. SMEs generate half of all U.S. jobs, but only 40% of the GDP. Developing countries tend to have a higher proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs are also responsible for driving innovation and competition in many economic sectors. Although they create more new jobs than large firms, SMEs also account for the majority of job destruction and contraction. According to the World Bank Group's 2021 FINDEX database, there is a $1.7 trillion funding gap for formal, women-owned micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Additionally, over 68% of small, women-owned firms lack access to finance.