Numbers of enterprises and local units produced from a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken on 14 March 2025.

In 2025, there were approximately 5.7 million private businesses operating in the United Kingdom, an increase when compared with the previous year, but down from a peak of 5.98 million businesses reported in 2020. There has been a net increase of around 2.2 million business enterprises since 2000, when there were 3.47 million. During the provided time period, the largest annual rise in the number of businesses occurred between 2013 and 2014, which saw a net increase of approximately 340,000 private enterprises. Employment in the UK Of the almost 34 million people employed in the UK in 2025 almost 28 million are employed in the private sector, highlighting their key role in the UK economy. Additionally, a significant share of the UK workforce are employed by around 4,000 large companies which employ over 500 people. In 2024, large companies employed over 9.65 million people, despite only composing a fraction of the total number of UK private enterprises. During the same time period, the UK public sector employed around 6.1million people, approximately 17.9 percent of the workforce. Retail and wholesale dominate Over 4.9 million people were employed in retail and wholesale in the UK in 2024, the most of any sector. After the retail sector, administrative, and support service businesses were the next biggest employer, at just over 3.09 million people. Retail and wholesale enterprises were also responsible for the highest combined turnover of UK businesses, at more than 1.8 trillion British pounds. The sector with the most enterprises, was the construction sector with over 870,000 enterprises belonging to this industry in 2024.

In 2025, there were estimated to be around 3.18 million business sites, or local units for VAT/PAYE based enterprises in the United Kingdom, compared with 3.17 million in the previous year.

Business births and deaths from the Inter-Departmental Business Register with high-level breakdowns by industry and region. Quarterly official statistics in development.

Forecast: Number of Persons Employed in Business Services in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

This publication provides the only official government statistics that attempt to the estimate the total number of UK private sector businesses in the UK and their contribution to employment and turnover. Also provided is an estimate of the total number of businesses in the UK whole economy. The publication supercedes the publication 'Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Statistics for the UK and Regions'. National Statistics

In 2025, there were approximately **** million small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the United Kingdom. Micro-sized enterprises that employ up to nine people constitute the majority of SMEs in the UK, at over *** million. Enterprises that have between 10 and 49 employees are classed as small enterprises, and numbered around ******* in the UK, while there were ****** medium-sized enterprises. Business landscape dominated by SMEs As of this year, the vast majority of business enterprises in the UK were SMEs, accounting for almost ** percent of private sector employment, and just over half of its collective turnover. Over ******* SMEs were based in the construction sector, with a further ******* in the professional, scientific, and technical activities sector. SMEs in wholesale and retail trade employed more people than both these sectors, however, at around **** million people. In terms of turnover Outlook for SMEs in 2025 Towards the end of 2024, ** percent of SMEs surveyed advised that increasing costs would be the main obstacle to running an SME in 2025, with a further ** percent indicating that the current economic climate would also be an obstacle. Higher than expected inflation, as well as tax increases for businesses, are just some of the challenges businesses are facing this year. Perhaps as a result, businesses have been shedding jobs for several months, with an increasing share of SMEs looking to either maintain current staffing levels, or to start cutting jobs.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Business: Over Website: 1000+ Employees data was reported at 45.700 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 43.700 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Business: Over Website: 1000+ Employees data is updated yearly, averaging 44.200 % from Dec 2008 (Median) to 2016, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 46.500 % in 2012 and a record low of 33.000 % in 2008. United Kingdom E Commerce: Business: Over Website: 1000+ Employees data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.S031: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Making E Commerce Sales.

United Kingdom UK: New Business Density: New Registrations per 1000 People Aged 15 to 64 data was reported at 15.742 Number in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 14.564 Number for 2015. United Kingdom UK: New Business Density: New Registrations per 1000 People Aged 15 to 64 data is updated yearly, averaging 11.202 Number from Dec 2006 (Median) to 2016, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 15.742 Number in 2016 and a record low of 8.922 Number in 2009. United Kingdom UK: New Business Density: New Registrations per 1000 People Aged 15 to 64 data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Businesses Registered Statistics. New businesses registered are the number of new limited liability corporations registered in the calendar year.; ; World Bank's Entrepreneurship Survey and database (http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/entrepreneurship).; Unweighted average; For cross-country comparability, only limited liability corporations that operate in the formal sector are included.

Exporters and importers of goods and services in Great Britain by employment size and turnover size.

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

🇬🇧 United Kingdom English 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

UK estimates of annual research and development (R&D) spending by UK businesses.

The data contained in these tables are numbers of enterprises and local units produced from a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken on 12 March 2021. This dataset contains details of the number of VAT and/or PAYE based enterprises and local units in districts, counties and unitary authorities within region and country by broad industry group.

In 2025, SME's in the UK collectively employed **** million people. In this year, micro-sized enterprises that had an employee headcount of nine or fewer employed around *** million people in the United Kingdom, with small businesses employing around *** million people, and medium-sized ones *** million.

Presents the number of enterprises (businesses) in the UK along with the turnover and employment in these enterprises. Source agency: Business, Innovation and Skills Designation: National Statistics Language: English Alternative title: SME Statistics