Research and analysis

Social enterprise: market trends 2021

A report examining the size and characteristics of the social enterprise sector.

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The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) produced this report looking at the size and characteristics of the social enterprise sector based on the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) (then the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)) 2021 Small Business Survey.

It examines the sector and identifies its scale in the UK, utilising a broad DCMS definition which includes both social enterprises within the voluntary and community sector and social enterprises operating as mission-led or purposeful businesses with private sector legal forms.

Previous reports on Social enterprise market trends have been published for:

Updates to this page

Published 19 November 2025
Last updated 19 November 2025 show all updates
  1. Minor changes

  2. First published.

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