More than eight-in-ten businesses that were open during 2019 survived the pandemic and are still trading, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The CSO's Frontier series on Business Signs of Life: Business Survival - which tracked business from 2019, through the pandemic until the end of 2021 - found that 10% of businesses risked closing and 6% appeared to be closed.

CSO statistician Sorcha O'Callaghan said: "The results show that of the enterprises with two or more persons engaged in 2019, 84% were estimated to be still in business at the end of 2021."

The sector with the highest survival rate is industry, which includes mining, quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply as well as water supply; sewerage and waste management. This sector had an 89.8% survival rate.

This is followed by the information and communication sector at 88.4%.

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The data shows that of the 1.5 million people employed by businesses in 2019, 1.4 million, or 94%, were working with a business that survived the pandemic.

Just 2.2% of people were employed in a business that appeared closed by the end of 2021 and 3.5% were with businesses that were at risk of closure.

The highest proportion of enterprises that appeared closed were in the real estate activities sector at 10%.

The 'other services activities sector', which includes gyms and hairdressers, had the highest proportion of enterprises which showed signs of being at risk of closing at 18%.

Ms O'Callaghan said: "Among the 653 large enterprises in 2019, 640 were still in business at the end of 2021.

"There were also more than nine in ten medium enterprises, at 96%, and small enterprises at 94%, which survived at the end of 2021."

The series was created by the CSO to provide up to date information on how enterprises have survived during the Covid-19 pandemic.