In 2024, there were approximately 870,040 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the construction sector in the United Kingdom, the most of any sector in that year. The sector with the second-highest number of SMEs was the Professional, Scientific and Technical activities sector, at 754,520 SMEs.

In 2024, 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.

In 2024, approximately 29 percent of SMEs in the UK reported that they had achieved growth in the previous 12 months, with SMEs in the retail sector, and hotels and restaurant sector the most likely to report annual growth, at 32 percent of SMEs.

In 2024, approximately 77 percent of SMEs in the UK made a profit, with SMEs in the construction sector being the most likely to have made a profit in that year, at 83 percent each. By contrast, just 67 percent of hotel and restaurant SMEs made a profit in 2024.

Success.ai’s UK SME Database gives your business a powerful edge in reaching verified small and medium-sized companies across the United Kingdom. Whether you’re selling business services, SaaS, finance tools, or logistics solutions—this dataset offers direct access to growth-stage companies that are ready to buy.

With rich company data and verified contact info for founders, directors, and operational managers, you’ll have everything needed to identify, engage, and convert high-potential UK SMEs.

Included Data Points:
- Company name and domain
- Business category and industry
- Company size (employee range)
- Location (city, postcode, region)
- Contact name, job title, email, LinkedIn

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Use Cases:
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- SME-focused research and segmentation
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Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.In January 2004, a consortium of public and private sector organisations commissioned Warwick Business School to carry out the United Kingdom Survey of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises' (SME) Finances, 2004. This was the first representative survey of SMEs to offer a close analysis of businesses with fewer than 250 employees, their main owners and their access to external finance. A second survey was conducted in 2008, where business owners were interviewed by telephone about the finances they have used or applied for in the last three years, their financial relationships, the characteristics of the business and personal details. In 2007, another consortium of UK public sector bodies, small business representative organisations and finance providers agreed to sponsor a similar survey to the 2004 survey, conducted by the Centre for Business Research based at the University of Cambridge. This study is held at the UKDA under SN 6049, with the title United Kingdom Survey of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises' Finances, 2007. It aimed to compile another benchmark and to identify any changes or trends that had emerged since 2004, but made a number of changes to the 2004 questionnaire, so that it is not a direct member of the UKSMEF series, but stands alongside it as a separate cross-sectional survey. The UKSMEF 2008 survey was conducted by the same Principal Investigator as the 2004 survey, based at Warwick Business School, and the 2008 report provides direct comparison between the 2004 and 2008 surveys. The aims of the 2009 survey were to:provide benchmarking data on the availability of credit to SMEs and the types of finance usedcollect information on the relationship between SMEs and their providers of financedevelop a general purpose micro database for quantitative research on business finance (offering, for example, scope for comparisons with the US Survey of Small Business Finances) The 2009 sample consisted of 1,250 follow up interviews with businesses interviewed for the 2008 survey. Telephone interviews were conducted by IFF Research Ltd during autumn 2009. These interviews focused on the cost and availability of overdrafts and term loans to businesses in the previous year due to policy makers concerns about the affect of the Credit Crisis on bank lending to SMEs. The data can be used for panel data analysis, in conjunction with UKSMEFs 2004 and 2008, or for standalone cross-sectional analysis. A set of population weights is included in the dataset so that this analysis can be weighted to the UK SME population. These weights were calculated using statistics provided by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills Enterprise Directorate - see Business population estimates, formerly 'SME Statistics'. Further information may be found on the ESRC UK Survey of SME Finances 2009 Follow On Study award webpage.

Success.ai’s UK SME Dataset gives you unmatched access to 2 million small and medium-sized enterprises across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Whether you’re targeting small business owners or departmental heads in growing firms, this dataset provides structured and verified company records for precise targeting.

Built for B2B sales, marketing, investment prospecting, and market research, each dataset includes detailed firmographics, ownership structure, and (optional) verified contact data for C-level or decision-making staff.

What You’ll Get:
- Company name, domain, and LinkedIn URL
- Headcount and revenue range
- Region, country, postal code
- SIC/NAICS codes or industry categories
- Contact info (owner, founder, CMO, etc. – optional)

Why Success.ai?
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Use Cases:
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The median profit made by SMEs in the UK in 2024 was approximately 13,000 British pounds, with SMEs in property or business services and construction sectors having the highest average profit, at 14,000 pounds.

Underlying data from the publication 'Research to understand the barriers to take up and use of business support' [URN 11/1288]. Data from a survey of 1,202 employer SMEs in England undertaken in March 2011. The survey was designed to provide statistically robust evidence of business use and non use of external business support services, differentiating between private sector and public sector sources of both routine information and strategic advice. The survey aimed to produce a broadly representative sample of SME employers and used a random stratified sample from the Experian database adopting quotas in order to capture sufficient numbers of businesses across key categories (age, size, sector, region). The data presented in the published report was weighted by size band to correct for over-sampling amongst larger SMEs.

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

Wholesale and retail SMEs employed approximately 2.33 million people in the United Kingdom in 2024, the most of any sector for SMEs that year. After this sector, professional, scientific, and technical activities had the next highest number of employees, at almost two million.

Explore 2M+ verified UK SMEs with rich company data: size, domain, industry, contacts & more. Ideal for marketing, research, and B2B targeting. GDPR-compliant. Best Price Guarantee

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.

This data describes SME use of high performance work practices. It supports a report on the rationale and evidence base for policy development in high performance working. The report also identifies of policy options that could be used to promote the wider adoption of high performance work systems for improved productivity and growth in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector.

In January 2004, a consortium of public and private sector organisations commissioned Warwick Business School to carry out the United Kingdom Survey of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises' (SME) Finances, 2004. This was the first representative survey of SMEs to offer a close analysis of businesses with fewer than 250 employees, their main owners and their access to external finance. A second survey was conducted in 2008, where business owners were interviewed by telephone about the finances they have used or applied for in the last three years, their financial relationships, the characteristics of the business and personal details.

In 2007, another consortium of UK public sector bodies, small business representative organisations and finance providers agreed to sponsor a similar survey to the 2004 survey, conducted by the Centre for Business Research based at the University of Cambridge. This study is held at the UKDA under SN 6049, with the title United Kingdom Survey of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises' Finances, 2007. It aimed to compile another benchmark and to identify any changes or trends that had emerged since 2004, but made a number of changes to the 2004 questionnaire, so that it is not a direct member of the UKSMEF series, but stands alongside it as a separate cross-sectional survey. The UKSMEF 2008 survey was conducted by the same Principal Investigator as the 2004 survey, based at Warwick Business School, and the 2008 report provides direct comparison between the 2004 and 2008 surveys.
The aims of the 2008 survey were to:

• provide benchmarking data on the availability of credit to SMEs and the types of finance used
• collect information on the relationship between SMEs and their providers of finance
• develop a general purpose micro database for quantitative research on business finance (offering, for example, scope for comparisons with the US Survey of Small Business Finances)

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The research programme had five objectives: to draw upon and develop recent theoretical contributions to the study of industrial organisation, firm behaviour and organisational change in a way which enabled them to be applied to the study of small firm creation, growth and development; to employ this framework to analyse empirically the determinants and constraints upon small business birth, growth and survival in a range of industries including hi-tech sectors, knitwear, printing and publishing; to employ the theoretical framework to analyse empirically the role of interfirm relationships and industrial districts in small firm creation, growth and development; to provide a detailed empirical analysis of the role of acquisition activity in the growth of small firms; to use the results of the theoretical and empirical research programme to evaluate policy proposals at a local, national and European level on a range of issues affecting the creation and growth of small firms. The methodology included econometric and case study analysis. Individual projects were conducted against a background analysis derived from a national postal survey of 2000 businesses and official statistics on the small business sector. The aim of the study was to create a longitudinal panel of small to medium enterprise (SME) data relating to a wide range of non-financial and attitudinal characteristics, and also including a limited number of financial variables not normally available in modified company accounts, from the national postal survey mentioned above. The initial survey was conducted in 1991 (covering 1987-1990). A first recall survey of the same population took place in 1993, and a second in 1995. The initial deposit of this study included only the results of the first survey. For the second edition of February 2002, the data and documentation were updated to include the 1993 and 1995 recall surveys. Main Topics: This dataset consists of two data files, sbe.por and cbr321.por. The first file, sbe.por, contains the responses to a 1991 survey of over 2000 independent small and medium-sized businesses in the manufacturing and business services sectors in England, Scotland and Wales. The questionnaire covered the years 1987-1990, and included topics on the role of independent small businesses, where respondents were asked their views on the roles of such businesses in economic activity and the challenges involved in running them; general characteristics of the business, where the questions were related to the history, ownership and character of the business as well as questions about the chief executive/partner/sole proprietor; commercial activity and competitive situation where the respondent was asked about the key characteristics of the business in terms of its suppliers, customers and competitive situation. Other sections covered: workforce and training (employment figures, recruiting difficulties and whether training was provided); factors affecting expansion and efficiency (designed to help with the understanding of principal factors which affect the rate of development of the business and the use of and access to business advice); technology and innovation (questions on the role of technological change and innovation in the development of the business); acquisition activity (intended to explore the role of acquisition and takeovers in the development of the business; and finance (designed to obtain some basic financial information about the profitability and sources of finance available to the business and the cost of borrowings. The second file, cbr321.por, contains data from 893 firms from the 1991 survey, along with their responses to two recall surveys conducted in 1993 and 1995. To be included in this data file, firms had to respond to the surveys in both 1991 and 1995. The two files should not be used together as one partially duplicates the other. The first recall survey (1993) consisted of a very brief questionnaire, which focused on finance characteristics but also included a few brief questions on general business characteristics and total employment. The second recall survey (1995) had a particular emphasis on innovation and innovation-related expenditure, but also included questions on the same topics as the first survey. A brief faxed questionnaire was sent to those firms unable to complete the full 1995 questionnaire, which included innovation and finance questions.

This statistic displays the share of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a financial risk rating of 'minimal' or 'low' in the United Kingdom (UK) from the years ending June 2014 to June 2019, by sector. In June 2019, it was found that 49 percent of agricultural sector SMEs were rated as having minimal or low financial risk. The SMEs with the lowest proportion of minimal/low risk were in the transport, storage and communication sector.

In the UK, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) now provide more employment and business turnover than large firms and public organisations together. Statistically, firms with under 250 employees in 1998 employed 57% of the workforce and accounted for 54% of turnover. This fits in with government policies to promote small businesses and self-employment more generally. Small size, however, creates problems as well as opportunities. Whereas large firms may operate with special departments to look after innovation, marketing and training needs, for example, small firms lack these resources. This can be a barrier to expansion.
However, by collaborating with other SMEs on certain business functions such as joint marketing to get into or extend export markets, or by sharing non-confidential knowledge to enhance innovation capacity, they can together overcome barriers caused by small size in a relatively costless manner.
The survey and interviews for this project sought to identify firms that engage in formal and informal partnerships based on mutual trust, exchanging favours, and judging reliability, credibility and reputation to be a safeguard against opportunistic behaviour.
The key question asked in this research was whether firms that make use of these kinds of 'social capital' display superior or inferior business performance compared to those that do not, holding everything else as far as possible constant. By exploring different types of social capital, some based on cultural identity, ethnicity or religion, some arising from membership of a specific, perhaps geographically defined economic community or particular industry, the research aimed to show the extent to which social capital may influence economic performance and draw policy lessons accordingly.
In order to investigate relationships between SME performance and social capital, operational measures of these two variables were developed and employed. The former were measured by turnover, profitability, employment and innovation performance, the latter by engagement in networks of a business, professional, social, cultural or political nature that had a bearing upon business performance. These were measured using Likert-based scaling measures. An index of area performance was drawn up for the UK to construct a sampling frame for a postal questionnaire survey capable of discriminating by spatial and economic categories of interest.

In 2024, 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.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. In the UK, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) now provide more employment and business turnover than large firms and public organisations together. Statistically, firms with under 250 employees in 1998 employed 57% of the workforce and accounted for 54% of turnover. This fits in with government policies to promote small businesses and self-employment more generally. Small size, however, creates problems as well as opportunities. Whereas large firms may operate with special departments to look after innovation, marketing and training needs, for example, small firms lack these resources. This can be a barrier to expansion. However, by collaborating with other SMEs on certain business functions such as joint marketing to get into or extend export markets, or by sharing non-confidential knowledge to enhance innovation capacity, they can together overcome barriers caused by small size in a relatively costless manner. The survey and interviews for this project sought to identify firms that engage in formal and informal partnerships based on mutual trust, exchanging favours, and judging reliability, credibility and reputation to be a safeguard against opportunistic behaviour. The key question asked in this research was whether firms that make use of these kinds of 'social capital' display superior or inferior business performance compared to those that do not, holding everything else as far as possible constant. By exploring different types of social capital, some based on cultural identity, ethnicity or religion, some arising from membership of a specific, perhaps geographically defined economic community or particular industry, the research aimed to show the extent to which social capital may influence economic performance and draw policy lessons accordingly. In order to investigate relationships between SME performance and social capital, operational measures of these two variables were developed and employed. The former were measured by turnover, profitability, employment and innovation performance, the latter by engagement in networks of a business, professional, social, cultural or political nature that had a bearing upon business performance. These were measured using Likert-based scaling measures. An index of area performance was drawn up for the UK to construct a sampling frame for a postal questionnaire survey capable of discriminating by spatial and economic categories of interest. Main Topics: The survey covered topics region, turnover, profit, type of industry, employment, quality standards, products and services, performance, skills, social contact and organisation membership, sharing of information and collaboration (with financial organisations, FE/HE, research institutes and other local, national or international companies), business support and consultancy, social capital and trust. Standard Measures Likert-type scales used in the questionnaire. Multi-stage stratified random sample Respondents were chosen on a random basis within a sampling frame (a specially-constructed geographical index of performance) to achieve representativeness in terms of size and sector of business. Face-to-face interview