Numbers of enterprises and local units produced from a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken on 8 March 2024.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Business Structure Database (BSD) contains a small number of variables for almost all business organisations in the UK. The BSD is derived primarily from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a live register of data collected by HM Revenue and Customs via VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. The IDBR data are complimented with data from ONS business surveys. If a business is liable for VAT (turnover exceeds the VAT threshold) and/or has at least one member of staff registered for the PAYE tax collection system, then the business will appear on the IDBR (and hence in the BSD). In 2004 it was estimated that the businesses listed on the IDBR accounted for almost 99 per cent of economic activity in the UK. Only very small businesses, such as the self-employed were not found on the IDBR.

The IDBR is frequently updated, and contains confidential information that cannot be accessed by non-civil servants without special permission. However, the ONS Virtual Micro-data Laboratory (VML) created and developed the BSD, which is a 'snapshot' in time of the IDBR, in order to provide a version of the IDBR for research use, taking full account of changes in ownership and restructuring of businesses. The 'snapshot' is taken around April, and the captured point-in-time data are supplied to the VML by the following September. The reporting period is generally the financial year. For example, the 2000 BSD file is produced in September 2000, using data captured from the IDBR in April 2000. The data will reflect the financial year of April 1999 to March 2000. However, the ONS may, during this time, update the IDBR with data on companies from its own business surveys, such as the Annual Business Survey (SN 7451).

The data are divided into 'enterprises' and 'local units'. An enterprise is the overall business organisation. A local unit is a 'plant', such as a factory, shop, branch, etc. In some cases, an enterprise will only have one local unit, and in other cases (such as a bank or supermarket), an enterprise will own many local units.

For each company, data are available on employment, turnover, foreign ownership, and industrial activity based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)92, SIC 2003 or SIC 2007. Year of 'birth' (company start-up date) and 'death' (termination date) are also included, as well as postcodes for both enterprises and their local units. Previously only pseudo-anonymised postcodes were available but now all postcodes are real.

The ONS is continually developing the BSD, and so researchers are strongly recommended to read all documentation pertaining to this dataset before using the data.

Linking to Other Business Studies
These data contain IDBR reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Latest Edition Information
For the sixteenth edition (March 2024), data files and a variable catalogue document for 2023 have been added.

Main Topics:

The following variables are available for enterprises and local units:

• employment (and employees)
• turnover
• Standard Industrial Classification (1992, 2003 and 2007 classifications are available)
• legal status (e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, public corporation, non-profit organisation etc)
• foreign ownership
• birth (company start date)
• death (termination date of trading)
• various geographical variables
  

'Employment' includes business owners, whereas 'employees' measures the number of staff, excluding owners.

Observations for enterprises also include a variable for ownership if the enterprise is part of a large group of companies.

Local units have an additional ‘death code’ variable, which serves as an indicator as to why the plant closed (e.g. as a result of a merger). It should also be noted that there is no turnover information for individual plants. This is because the ONS does not collect financial information at the plant level, which is notoriously difficult, especially for manufacturing plants where often no financial transactions are processed.

The birth and death variables are particularly useful for research, although it should be noted that for businesses that began trading before 1973, their birth date will be set to 1973. This is the year that VAT was introduced in the UK, and hence the first point in time for VAT registration for these companies. Companies that began trading since 1973 have their ‘real’ date of birth listed.

Monthly dataset showing change in sales and jobs recorded by Xero, an online accounting software platform. This dataset is updated on a quarterly basis. These are official statistics in development. Source: Xero.

The Small Business Survey (SBS) is a large scale telephone survey commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as a follow up to the Annual Survey of Small Businesses 2007/8. The main aims of the first SBS survey in 2010 were to:

• monitor key enterprise indicators (e.g. employment, turnover, finance, business growth) and how these have changed in comparison to previous surveys. In particular the survey measures characteristics of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) such as the proportions which are women and minority-ethnic led, and the proportions applying for and obtaining external finance


• gauge SME intentions, needs, concerns and the obstacles to fulfilling their potential
• provide evidence for possible Government interventions to assist SMEs
• create a database which can be used for follow-up studies among the general SME population, or sub-groups within it

The main aims of the next survey in 2012 were to:

• monitor key enterprise indicators and how these have changed in comparison to previous surveys, the 2010 SBS in particular
• create a database that can be used for follow-up studies among the general SME population, and sub-groups within it.

From 2015, the survey methodology has changed to include a longitudinal tracking element. The Longitudinal Small Business Survey: Secure Access is available under SN 8261.

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

The second edition (August 2014) includes data from 2012.

Small Business Sentiment in the United Kingdom increased to -1 points in the first quarter of 2024 from -13 points in the fourth quarter of 2023. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Small Business Sentiment - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

During an early 2023 survey carried out among among people who run their own business or side hustle in the United Kingdom, ** percent stated they used paid social media posts to market their business. ost used channel amogn the *** presented in the data set was organic/non-paid social media, named by ** percent of respondents.

The Business Structure Database (BSD) contains a small number of variables for almost all business organisations in the UK. The BSD is derived primarily from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a live register of data collected by HM Revenue and Customs via VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. The IDBR data are complimented with data from ONS business surveys. If a business is liable for VAT (turnover exceeds the VAT threshold) and/or has at least one member of staff registered for the PAYE tax collection system, then the business will appear on the IDBR (and hence in the BSD). In 2004 it was estimated that the businesses listed on the IDBR accounted for almost 99 per cent of economic activity in the UK. Only very small businesses, such as the self-employed were not found on the IDBR.

The IDBR is frequently updated, and contains confidential information that cannot be accessed by non-civil servants without special permission. However, the ONS Virtual Micro-data Laboratory (VML) created and developed the BSD, which is a 'snapshot' in time of the IDBR, in order to provide a version of the IDBR for research use, taking full account of changes in ownership and restructuring of businesses. The 'snapshot' is taken around April, and the captured point-in-time data are supplied to the VML by the following September. The reporting period is generally the financial year. For example, the 2000 BSD file is produced in September 2000, using data captured from the IDBR in April 2000. The data will reflect the financial year of April 1999 to March 2000. However, the ONS may, during this time, update the IDBR with data on companies from its own business surveys, such as the Annual Business Survey (SN 7451).

The Business Structure Database Longitudinal, 1997-2013 was compiled by Michael Anyadike-Danes, Aston Business School, with support from Economic and Social Research Council funding.

Researchers are advised to read the documentation accompanying the main BSD collection held by the UK Data Archive under SN 6697 before applying for or using the longitudinal data.

Linking to other business studies
These data contain IDBR reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

For the second edition (April 2019), the full postcodes have been replaced with only the first part of the postcode (e.g., SW1V rather than SW1V 2QQ) in the two geography data files. A look up file that includes postcode districts has been added so that users can still aggregate to higher geographies.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Cambridge Centre for Business Research Survey of Knowledge Exchange Activity with Universities by United Kingdom Companies, 2017-2021 contains the results of an online survey of directors of UK companies in 2020-2021.

The survey was designed to assess the extent and nature of the knowledge exchange interactions of their companies with the university sector. It covers the three-year period to March 2020 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and questions relating to the subsequent impact of the pandemic on knowledge exchange patterns. The researchers inquired about 33 modes of interaction grouped into four broad categories. These were commercialisation (3 modes), people-based (10 modes), problem-solving (12 modes) and community-based (4 modes).

The survey covers a sample of 3,823 companies in all sectors, regions and countries of the UK and employment sizes ranging from micro-firms less than 10 employees, to the largest public listed corporations. The response rate was 4.4 per cent and a detailed response bias analyses by survey wave and prompt wave showed largely insignificant sample response bias compared to the sampling frame drawn from the FAME database of all UK companies.

The dataset provides a unique source of data on a critical period of challenge for knowledge exchange in the UK. David Sweeney, the then Executive Director of Research England which sponsored the survey commented on an initial report of results in 2022 that "This report which has an exclusive focus on company interactions with universities, is an important addition to our understanding of the collaboration process" (The Changing State of Business-University Interactions in the UK. Centre for Business Research and NCUB. 2022 p2).

The survey dataset contains many variables comparable with a similar previous postal survey of an earlier period by two members of the current research team. The data from this is available from the Data Archive under SN 6464 - Cambridge Centre for Business Research Survey of Knowledge Exchange Activity by United Kingdom Businesses, 2005-2009.

Main Topics:

The survey was designed to assess the extent and nature of the knowledge exchange interactions of UK companies with the UK university sector.

Value and volume of retail sales broken down by size of business

Annual data on births, deaths and survival of businesses in the UK, by geographical area and Standard Industrial Classification 2007: SIC 2007 groups.

With this dataset, you get access to names of officers – individuals appointed by the board of directors to manage the day-to-day operations of a company, and shareholders – individuals or entities that own shares in a company.

This dataset can be a great resource for understanding the corporate hierarchy, analyzing ownership structures, conducting due diligence, or evaluating potential business partnerships.

This dataset provides comprehensive insights into business exit trends among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom for the year 2025. It encompasses data from a survey of 29,965 SME owners, highlighting key factors influencing business exits, preferred exit strategies, and the economic impact of these exits.

This dataset provides insights into the record number of companies founded by women in the UK in 2023, along with information on gender representation in business and self-employment.

Percentage of VAT registered businesses showing year-on-year employment growth. This indicator will include those businesses registered for VAT with less than 50 employment (around 98% of all VAT registered enterprises). It will measure the proportion of those businesses showing year on year employment growth, where employment is measured as the number of employees (full and part-time) plus the number of self-employed people that run the business.

Source: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

Publisher: DCLG Floor Targets Interactive

Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), County/Unitary Authority, Government Office Region (GOR), National

Geographic coverage: England

Time coverage: 2002/03 to 2008/09

Notes: At the start of 2006 the VAT threshold was an annual turnover of 60,000 and 1.85 million of the estimated 4.3 million enterprises in the UK were VAT registered.

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This is the proportion of newly born enterprises still active three years after birth in the area.A business is deemed to have survived if, having been a birth in year t or having survived to year t, it is active in terms of employment and/or turnover in any part of t+1.

This data is produced from an extract taken from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The publication focuses on changes to the registered business population, that is, those businesses registered at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) and at Companies House.

The starting point for demography is the concept of a population of active businesses in a reference year (t). These are defined as businesses that had either turnover or employment at any time during the reference period. Proportions are based on figures rounded independently to the nearest 5 units.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

This is the number of new enterprises, also known as business births, in the area for the quarter. Business creations are new enterprise entries in the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). Enterprises are added to the IDBR when a new business is identified from administrative sources (usually the Value Added Tax (VAT) or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) systems).

An enterprise can be defined as the smallest combination of legal units that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, that benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. An enterprise carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. An enterprise may also be a sole legal unit.

Business creations for this data are based on the date on which the action occurs on the IDBR. Data is extracted from the IDBR quarterly and may be subject to revision. The date a business is added to the IDBR is generally on the same day, or within a few days, of the legal creation of the business as a company with Companies House. However, this can be several weeks after the effective birth of the business.

An unspecified geography category has been introduced to deal with the distorting effect of multiple registrations at the same site. These apply where there are 250 plus creations or closures at the same postcode. Any creations or closures that happen at one of these postcodes are taken out of their geography and placed into the unspecified category. These cases still count towards the UK totals and may account for up to 4 per cent of the overall total.

Figures for each period are rounded independently to the nearest 5 using controlled rounding. The ONS statistics presented are "Experimental Statistics", so care needs to be taken when interpreting them. Care should be taken interpreting figures for a single period, therefore the annual business demography publication is a more accurate reflection of business births and deaths.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.