SMEs in Europe have been more resilient to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting disruption than the large firms in the EU’s non-financial business sector, according to data from Eurostat. When the pandemic was at its peak in 2020, and the jobs and output shrunk significantly, the number of SMEs functioning in the EU’s non-finance business economy surged by 1%. Meanwhile, the number of larger enterprises declined by 3.4% during the period under review. Furthermore, 23.3 million SMEs operating in Europe’s non-finance business economy in 2020 had a workforce of 82 million people, which was 64% of the total employed.
