Thursday, October 30, 2014
There are almost half a million businesses in New Zealand - one for every nine people in the country.
The highest rate of business growth is in the construction sector.
Overall there were 487,900 businesses in February, when a snapshot was taken.
That's up 2.5% on last year, and surpasses the previous peak in 2009.
The number of high-growth enterprises exceeded 1000 for the first time since 2008.
That's businesses with an average employment growth of at least 20% a year over the last three years.