The first five months of 2017 have seen 9,585 Irish company start-ups recorded - an average of 63 new companies per day - the best figure seen for that period since 2000 (9,729 start-ups).

Professional services remains the most popular industry for Irish start-ups with almost one in five (1,851) operating in this sector - these companies would typically be associated with Accounting, Admin, Marketing, Engineering, HR, Investigation, Legal Services etc.

The finance and social & personal sectors were the second and third most popular industries for start-ups and accounted for 2,452 new companies between them. Construction and wholesale & retail round out the top 5 most popular industries with 943 and 859 start-ups respectively.

Approximately 45% of start-ups formed between January and May this year are based in Dublin with a further 10% based in Cork. Kildare, Galway and Meath are next on the list and account for 11.5% of new companies between them.

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