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.

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.

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.

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 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

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

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.

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.

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.

Digital technology adoption in UK SMEs

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.

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

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.

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

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 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 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)

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.

This statistic shows the expectations of small and medium enterprises (SME) for the extent to which access to external finance will be an obstacle to running the business in the next 12 months in the United Kingdom (UK) as of 2nd quarter 2019, by enterprise size. During the survey period, it was found that 8 percent of all SMEs expected access to external finance to be a major obstacle, compared to 76 percent that viewed it as as a minor obstacle.