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.

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, 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.

As of 2024, 40 percent of SMEs in the United Kingdom reported that increasing costs were one of the main obstacles to running their business, with a further 35 percent reporting the current economic climate as a main concern.

Approximately 67 percent of SMEs made a profit in the UK in 2024, compared with 12 percent that made a loss. Among medium-sized enterprises that employed 50 to 249 employees, 80 percent of them made a profit, compared with 77 percent of enterprises that employed 10 to 49 employees.

in 2021, 6.1% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with employees and 4.9% of SMEs without employees were 'majority led' by people from an ethnic minority

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

Why Success.ai?
- Covers 2.5M+ UK small and mid-sized businesses
- Verified data for owners, directors, and decision-makers
- Great for outreach in services, SaaS, HR, and legal sectors
- Curated for accuracy and delivered your way
- Best Price Guarantee – always competitive, always complete

Use Cases:
- B2B sales outreach to UK growth companies
- Local ABM for regional campaigns
- Market expansion for service providers
- SME-focused research and segmentation
- Email marketing and CRM enrichment

Ofcom undertakes research on the availability and experience of communications services for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, defined as businesses with fewer than 250 employees. A survey of 1501 SMEs (0-249 employees) was undertaken using CATI (computer aided telephone interviewing). The survey data were weighted to be representative of the SME universe on size. Fieldwork took place between 9 May and 18 July 2016.

Forecast: New Business Lending for SMEs in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

In 2024, small and medium-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom had a combined turnover of over **** trillion British pounds, with businesses that had less than ten people working there contributing the most, at over ***** trillion pounds.

In 2024, there were approximately 5.49 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 5.23 million. Enterprises that have between 10 and 49 employees are classed as small enterprises, and numbered around 219,900 in the UK, while there were 37,750 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 60 percent of private sector employment, and just over half of its collective turnover. Over 870,000 SMEs were based in the construction sector, with a further 754,500 in the professional, scientific, and technical activities sector. SMEs in wholesale and retail trade employed more people than both these sectors, however, at around 2.33 million people. In terms of turnover Outlook for SMEs in 2025 Towards the end of 2024, 40 percent of SMEs surveyed advised that increasing costs would be the main obstacle to running an SME in 2025, with a further 35 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.

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, 70 percent of SMEs in the United Kingdom reported that they had made a profit in the previous 12 months, compared with six percent that broke even, and 14 percent that made a loss. The share of SMEs that made a profit was relatively stable until 2020, when it fell from 73 percent in the first quarter of that year to 47 percent in the second quarter, 2021.

In 2024, there were approximately ******* small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in London, making it the region with the highest number of SMEs in the United Kingdom. By contrast, in the same year, there were just ******* SMEs in Northern Ireland, the fewest of any UK region.

This data describes small and medium enterprise (SME) relationships with large businesses and how these affect SME growth. Provides evidence for a report on the factors that affect growth in medium sized businesses; and how relationships and interactions between SMEs and large businesses affect SME growth.

This statistic shows the value added by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the United Kingdom economy in 2018, in billion euros. Micro-sized enterprises added ***** billion euros to the UK economy during this year. In total, SMEs in the United Kingdom generated a total value of ***** billion euros.

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.

This sample dataset includes information for five different SMEs across various locations. The data includes the SME's capital, turnover, pre-tax profit, tax, and number of employees for both 2018 and 2019.

Please note that the data provided is completely random and is for illustrative purposes only. In practice, the data for a particular SME would need to be based on actual financial and business metrics.

Data on SME performance and the factors that affect this. Based on a series of surveys among small and medium-sized (SME) employer enterprises across the UK. The survey assesses how well or badly small businesses are performing, their needs, concerns and barriers to growth.