There were just over 982,910 private business enterprises located in London in 2024, compared with 1.05 million businesses in the previous year.

In 2024, there were ******* businesses in London in the United Kingdom that employed * to * people and approximately ****** businesses that had * to * employees.

Of the ******* businesses in London, ******** were in the professional, scientific and technical sector, with a further 136,220 in the construction industry.

Estimates of total businesses broken down by industry (2, 3, 4 digit SIC 2007 codes and industry section). Workplace data units from Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) for London and Great Britain.

Data rounded to the nearest 100. Percentages calculated on unrounded data

Industry is broken down using SIC 2007 codes. Read more about SIC here http://www.statistics.gov.uk/methods_quality/sic/downloads/SIC2007explanatorynotes.pdf
The ABI is a business survey which collects both employment and financial information. Only employment information for the location of an employees workplace is available from Nomis
The ABI is based on a sample of approximately 78,000 businesses and is used to provide an estimate of the number of employees.
The difference between the estimate and its true value is known as the sampling error. The actual sampling error for any estimate is unknown but we can estimate, from the sample, a typical error, known as the standard error. This provides a means of assessing the precision of the estimate; the lower the standard error, the more confident we can be the estimate is close to the true value. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/articles/showArticle.asp?title=Information&article=news/071212_abi-stderrors.htm

This dataset excludes farm based agriculture data contained in SIC class 0100.

Relevant link: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

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

Estimates of total businesses broken down by industry (2, 3, 4 digit SIC 2007 codes and industry section). Workplace data units from Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) for London and Great Britain. Data rounded to the nearest 100. Percentages calculated on unrounded data. An extract compiled from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) recording the number of local units that were live at a reference date in March. Estimates can be broken down by employment size band, detailed industry (5 digit SIC2007) and legal status. Available from country down to mid layer super output area and Scottish intermediate zones. A local unit is an individual site (for example a factory or shop) associated with an enterprise. It can also be referred to as a workplace. Industry is broken down using SIC 2007 codes. Read more about SIC here http://www.statistics.gov.uk/methods_quality/sic/downloads/SIC2007explanatorynotes.pdf The ABI is a business survey which collects both employment and financial information. Only employment information for the location of an employees workplace is available from Nomis The ABI is based on a sample of approximately 78,000 businesses and is used to provide an estimate of the number of employees. The difference between the estimate and its true value is known as the sampling error. The actual sampling error for any estimate is unknown but we can estimate, from the sample, a typical error, known as the standard error. This provides a means of assessing the precision of the estimate; the lower the standard error, the more confident we can be the estimate is close to the true value. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/articles/showArticle.asp?title=Information&article=news/071212_abi-stderrors.htm This dataset excludes farm based agriculture data contained in SIC class 0100. Relevant link: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

The 2014 London Business Survey (LBS) is an innovative survey designed by the Office for National Statistics, on behalf of the London Enterprise Panel and the GLA. The survey collected information from a representative sample of private sector businesses in London in May-July 2014. This dataset contains information on London’s private sector workforce and recruitment by London businesses corresponding with Section 3 of the London Business Survey 2014: Main Findings report. Information is provided on: The number of employees working in London businesses by gender The change in the number of employees compared to 12 months ago, and the outlook for the next 12 months Reasons for a rise or fall in the number of employees Recruitment, including whether London businesses have recruited via Job Centre Plus (JCP), and the perceived suitability of these candidates For statistics on the number of full-time and part-time employees working in London, the ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES)is the recommended official source. As with any survey, the 2014 LBS is based on a sample and as such is subject to variability in the results. Care should therefore be taken in interpreting the survey findings. For all estimates, lower and upper limits of 95% confidence intervals are provided in the data files to assist with interpretation. The LBS results represent the population of business units in London. A business unit is defined as a site/workplace, which may also be a head office if the head office is in London. It will be the whole business in the case of businesses which only have one site, or part of the business in the case of multi-site firms. The results are presented by enterprise size band and industry sector.

A list of businesses located in London showing a range of information including company name, address, postcode, local authority, and SIC code (industry).

The Free Company Data Product is a downloadable data snapshot containing basic company data of live companies on the register. The version available from Companies House has all UK business and is available to download in a series of Zip folders.

The London cut available to download here, was created using a postcode list. Therefore, if there is an error in the postcode, or some other problem caused the postcode listed not to match a London postcode, those business will not be included in the file. Furthermore, inaccuracies in postcodes may mean that no local authority is listed for a company.

Each entry represents a financial accounts submission of either a whole company or part of one. Some businesses have more than one entry in the directory because they need to submit more than one set of accounts for different parts of their business. Therefore, the number of entries in the directory will be greater than the number of businesses.

Note, Large file size - the Excel file is almost 600MB.

Companies House update the latest snapshot within 5 working days of the previous month end. The London file available here was published on 1 May 2018.

Further metadata and user guidance is available here.

Data on enterprise births, deaths, active enterprises and survival rates in Barnet, as well as comparative data across Greater London boroughs.

This data is adapted from data from the Office for National Statistics and published by the GLA licensed under the Open Government Licence.

Comparative data and other information can also be found on the London Datastore.

Data includes:
1) the most recent annual figures for enterprise births and deaths. Births and deaths are identified by comparing active populations of enterprises for different years
2) time series of the number of births and deaths of entrprises together with a percentage of births and deaths to active enterprises in a given year
3) a time series of the number of active enterprises. Active enterprises are businesses that had either turnover or employment at any time during the reference period.
4) survival rates of enterprises for up to 5 years after birth

Data on size of firms (micro-business, SME, large) for business and employees in London by industry can be found on the ONS website.

More Business Demographics data on the ONS website

The 2014 London Business Survey (LBS) is an innovative survey designed by the Office for National Statistics, on behalf of the London Enterprise Panel and the GLA. The survey collected information from a representative sample of private sector businesses in London in May-July 2014. This dataset contains information on skills, training, and apprenticeships corresponding with Section 7 of the London Business Survey 2014: Main Findings report. Information is provided on: London businesses that did upskilling, training and development of their employees, and the number of employees that working for such businesses. The sources of training used by London businesses, including on-the-job learning, in-house training courses, and long and short courses with external providers Business use of external providers of long courses including further education colleges, adult education colleges, universities and other private businesses London Businesses employing apprentices Business awareness and receipt of grants available for apprenticeships London businesses employing staff with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills As with any survey, the 2014 LBS is based on a sample and as such is subject to variability in the results. Care should therefore be taken in interpreting the survey findings. For all estimates, lower and upper limits of 95% confidence intervals are provided in the data files to assist with interpretation. The LBS results represent the population of business units in London. A business unit is defined as a site/workplace, which may also be a head office if the head office is in London. It will be the whole business in the case of businesses which only have one site, or part of the business in the case of multi-site firms. The results are presented by enterprise size band and industry sector.

In 2024, there were approximately 589,410 local business units for VAT or PAYE-based enterprises located in London in the United Kingdom, compared with 584,420 in the previous year.

Main Topics: In addition to the name, type of business, and street address for each entry, the dataset contains the year of the listing, a mobility code' indicating presence in the previous year's directory, and a set of geographical grid coordinates accurate to 100 metres. The directories are presented in three data files. TheStreet' file, an alphabetical listing of all addresses occupied by businesses each year, gives for each address the year, street name and number, and grid location. The Business Type' file is an alphabetical listing of businesses by their descriptions. TheMaster' file duplicates data from both of the other files and also contains the name and mobility code of each business.

Published annually from 1732 until 1828, the Kent Directories provide the names, descriptions, and addresses of businesses in London. This collection is a transcription of the directories beginning with the 1759 edition.

Data on enterprise births, deaths, active enterprises and survival rates across boroughs.

Data includes:

1. the most recent annual figures for enterprise births and deaths
2. a time series of the number of births and deaths of entrprises together with a percentage of births and deaths to active enterprises in a given year
3. a time series of the number of active enterprises.
4. survival rates of enterprises for up to 5 years after birth

Notes and definitions:

• The starting point for business 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.
• A birth is identified as a business that was present in year t, but did not exist in year t-1 or t-2. Births are identified by making comparison of annual active population files and identifying those present in the latest file, but not the two previous ones.
• A death is defined as a business that was on the active file in year t, but was no longer present in the active file in t+1 and t+2. In order to provide an early estimate of deaths, an adjustment has been made to the 2007 and 2008 deaths to allow for reactivations. These figures are provisional and subject to revision.

Data on size of firms (micro-business, SME, large) for business and employees in London by industry can be found on the ONS website.

More Business Demographics data on the ONS website

Presents analysis of nearly one thousand small areas within London showing the number of employees working for businesses with fewer than 250 employees in the UK (small- and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs) and for businesses with 250 or more employees in the UK (large enterprises). The release includes numbers of SMEs and large firms in these small areas of London. The figures are calculated using data from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) for the period 2001 to 2012.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: London Analysis

The 2014 London Business Survey (LBS) is an innovative survey designed by the Office for National Statistics, on behalf of the London Enterprise Panel and the GLA. The survey collected information from a representative sample of private sector businesses in London in May-July 2014.

This dataset contains information on London businesses’ awareness and experience of business support available to SMEs corresponding with Section 6 of the London Business Survey 2014: Main Findings report.

Information is provided on:

• The sources of external advice used by London businesses

• The topics on which external advice is sought by London businesses

• Business awareness and use of incubator, accelerator and co-working spaces

As with any survey, the 2014 LBS is based on a sample and as such is subject to variability in the results. Care should therefore be taken in interpreting the survey findings. For all estimates, lower and upper limits of 95% confidence intervals are provided in the data files to assist with interpretation. The LBS results represent the population of business units in London. A business unit is defined as a site/workplace, which may also be a head office if the head office is in London. It will be the whole business in the case of businesses which only have one site, or part of the business in the case of multi-site firms.

The results are presented by enterprise size band and industry sector.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) commissioned the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to design and run the London Business Survey (LBS) 2014 on behalf of the Mayor of London, the GLA, the London Enterprise Panel (LEP) and London and Partners. The survey took place in March-April 2014 (pilot stage) and in May-July 2014 (main stage). The aim was to collect evidence to help inform policies for London businesses. The LBS had also been run in 2006.

When the GLA approached ONS to run the survey, it had three key requirements:

• that the survey should be representative of London, specifically of private sector businesses in the main sectors of London’s economy
• that the survey should cover the topics of interest to those commissioning the survey, including how London is rated as a business location, ease of access to finance for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), employment, skills and training, the economic outlook, international trade and innovation
• that it should be possible to analyse the results by enterprise size (comparing SMEs with large firms) and by industry sector

ONS selected a sample using the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), the
sampling frame which is used for most official business surveys. The LBS enterprise size bands are:

• micro enterprises: 0 to 9 employees
• other SMEs: 10 to 249 employees
• large enterprises: 250+ employees

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.

United Kingdom Number of Listed Companies: Annual: Equities data was reported at 990.000 Unit in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 982.000 Unit for 2016. United Kingdom Number of Listed Companies: Annual: Equities data is updated yearly, averaging 2,010.500 Unit from Dec 1972 (Median) to 2017, with 46 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 3,585.000 Unit in 1973 and a record low of 973.000 Unit in 2014. United Kingdom Number of Listed Companies: Annual: Equities data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by London Stock Exchange. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.Z013: London Stock Exchange: Number of Listed Companies and Securities.

The 2014 London Business Survey (LBS) is an innovative survey designed by the Office for National Statistics, on behalf of the London Enterprise Panel and the GLA. The survey collected information from a representative sample of private sector businesses in London in May-July 2014.

This dataset contains information on London businesses’ awareness and experience of business support available to SMEs corresponding with Section 6 of the London Business Survey 2014: Main Findings report.

Information is provided on:

• The sources of external advice used by London businesses

• The topics on which external advice is sought by London businesses

• Business awareness and use of incubator, accelerator and co-working spaces

As with any survey, the 2014 LBS is based on a sample and as such is subject to variability in the results. Care should therefore be taken in interpreting the survey findings. For all estimates, lower and upper limits of 95% confidence intervals are provided in the data files to assist with interpretation. The LBS results represent the population of business units in London. A business unit is defined as a site/workplace, which may also be a head office if the head office is in London. It will be the whole business in the case of businesses which only have one site, or part of the business in the case of multi-site firms.

The results are presented by enterprise size band and industry sector.

The 2014 London Business Survey (LBS) is an innovative survey designed by the Office for National Statistics, on behalf of the London Enterprise Panel and the GLA. The survey collected information from a representative sample of private sector businesses in London in May-July 2014. This dataset contains information on London as a business location and the factors affecting businesses corresponding with Section 2 of the London Business Survey 2014: Main Findings report. Information is provided on: How businesses rate London as a place to do business for a range of factors including: transport infrastructure, digital and communications infrastructure, affordable workspace, the cost of housing and staff with the appropriate skills The expected impact on the business of leaving the EU (but not the single market) How Greater London compares to cities outside the UK on availability of work visas for non–European employees Satisfaction with local facilities including parks, sporting and recreational facilities, cultural activities, local amenities, and the safety and cleanliness of the local environment Factors affecting businesses including the costs of energy and materials, taxes and business rates, government regulations, travel infrastructure, IT/connectivity As with any survey, the 2014 LBS is based on a sample and as such is subject to variability in the results. Care should therefore be taken in interpreting the survey findings. For all estimates, lower and upper limits of 95% confidence intervals are provided in the data files to assist with interpretation. The LBS results represent the population of business units in London. A business unit is defined as a site/workplace, which may also be a head office if the head office is in London. It will be the whole business in the case of businesses which only have one site, or part of the business in the case of multi-site firms. The results are presented by enterprise size band and industry sector.