In 2008, out of the total 20 million enterprises present in the European Union, 99.8% are SMEs, whereas only 43,000 are large scale enterprises.
In the period of 2002-2008, the number of SMEs grew faster when compared to the number of LSEs. Among the Smes, the micro and small firms showed highest growth rates. During this period, the number of SMEs increased by 2.4 million enterprises, while large scale enterprises saw an increase of 2000 enterprises only. The various factors that determine the number of enterprises are birth and death of enterprises, and the underlying determinants, mergers and split ups.
The size classes for U.S and japan are not the same. The developments in U.S is similar to EU, but in case of Japan, the number of firms decreased during the period 2002-2006. it is also found that in case of Japan, due to the dominance of large scale industries, the number of firms were decreasing since 1980’s, reflecting low rates of entry.