Enterprises and Establishments Statistics at the end of September 2005

• Background
  These statistics are the results of the analysis of the records in the Enterprises and Establishments Register (EER) at the end of September 2005. The EER is a computerised database of enterprises and establishments in Botswana developed and maintained by the Central Statistics Office. It is mainly used as a sampling frame for economic surveys. Details on the methodology and limitations of these statistics can be found in the technical note in Appendix 1.
• Operating Establishments
  At the end of September 2005, there were 55,033 establishments listed in the Enterprises and Establishments Register compared to 54,875 at the end of September 2004. Out of the 55,033 listed establishments, 16,683 of them were known to be operating.

• The Distribution of Operating Establishments by Location
  As displayed in Table 1 in the tables’ section, the EER records show that most of the establishments were located in Gaborone at the end of September 2005. Gaborone had 37.4 percent of the total operating establishments. Francistown and Kweneng followed with 8.9 and 5.9 percent respectively. Sowa Town, Chobe/Kasane and Jwaneng had the least number of operating establishments. Sowa Town had 0.1 percent of the total operating establishments, while Chobe/Kasane and Jwaneng had 1.2 percent each. 

In terms of change in the number of operating establishments between September 2004 and September 2005, the EER records show that Chobe/Kasane experienced the largest change. Operating establishments in Chobe/Kasane increased from 188 at the end of September 2004 to 194 at the end of September 2005; showing an increase of 3.2 percent. Francistown became second after registering an increase of 2.0 percent. Mahalapye and Kweneng followed with 1.5 and 1.1 percent respectively.

• The Distribution of Operating Establishments by Employment Size
  At the end of September 2005, establishments with 5-29 employees constituted 35.2 percent of all operating establishments listed in the EER. Establishments with 1-4 employees were the second largest and they constituted 28.8 percent. Those with no employees made up 7.1 percent of the total while those with 30-49 employees were only 5.1 percent. Establishments with 50-99 and 100 or more employees accounted for 2.5 and 2.0 percent, respectively.

The analysis of the records also shows that 3.8 percent of operating establishments listed in the EER had only owners and family workers in the business, while 15.4 percent had an unknown number of employees.

• The Distribution of Operating Establishments by Economic Activity
  Wholesale and Retail Trade was the most preferred economic activity by the end of September 2005. It constituted 34.9 percent of all operating establishments. The second most popular economic activity was Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities, at 10.9 percent. Hotels and Restaurants was the forth amongst the preferred activities and accounted for 10.4 percent. Education and Manufacturing followed with 8.0 and 7.8 percent respectively 

• Industrial Stats Brief 2006/7

• Table 1: The number of operating establishments by location: (September 1999 – September 2005)
• Table 2: The number of operating establishments by economic activity and location as at end of September 2005
• Table 3: The number of operating establishments by economic activity (September 1999 – September 2005)
• Table 4: The number of operating establishments by economic activity and employment size as at end of September 2005
• Table 5: The number of operating establishments by employment size (September 1999 – September 2005)
• Table 6:The number of operating establishments by industry in Manufacturing (September 1999 – September 2005)
• Table 7:The number of operating establishments by industry and location (Manufacturing only) as at end of September 2005
• Table 8: The number of operating establishments by industry and employment size (Manufacturing only) as at end of September 2005
• Appendix 1&2: Methodology & Definition of Terms
• Appendix 3: Botswana Standard Industrial Classification (BSIC) – Revision 3

Central Statistics Office, P/ Bag 0024, Gaborone. Botswana
Contact Statistician: Ruth Mothibi,
Telephone: 3952200 Ext. 240, Fax: 3952201, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Date of Revision: 16 March 2006