This report assessed the contribution of family businesses to the Irish economy and labour market. We adopted the Central Statistics Office’s (CSO) definition of family business, derived from the ‘common European definition’, whereby: — one family holds more than 50% of voting shares, and/or — one family supplies a significant proportion of the senior management and effectively controls the business, and/or — a family or a family relationship influences the enterprise and the latter is perceived to be a family business. The report assessed that 64% of all businesses in Ireland can be classified as a family business, and it makes international comparisons, and sets out sector distributions.