Transparency data

OECD-defined High Growth Enterprises in the UK

Updated 1 February 2024

High Growth Enterprises (HGEs) are defined by the OECD as:

… enterprises with average annualised growth greater than 20% per annum, over a three year period …. measured by the number of employees or by turnover. A meaningful size threshold should be set … A provisional size threshold has been suggested as 10 employees at the beginning of the growth period.

This data release, which highlights the gender and regional disparities in entrepreneurship across the UK, was presented by the Women-Led High Growth Taskforce in Downing Street, and will inform their work.

Table 1: Number and percentage of companies split by the gender split of the founders for OECD defined HGEs in the UK

Gender of founders	Number of companies	Percentage of companies
All female	88	5.5%
Majority female	9	0.6%
Equal split	123	7.7%
Majority male	38	2.4%
All male	1,337	83.8%
Total	1,595	100%

Note: Companies are only included where their gender balance is known.
Source: Beauhurst data extracted on 6 March 2023.

Table 2: Number and percentage of companies split by the gender split of the founders for OECD defined HGEs across the UK

Region	All female	Majority female	Equal split	Majority male	All male	Total
Scotland 145	12 14.6%	0 0%	9 11%	1 1.2%	60 73.2%	82 100%
Northern Ireland 48	1 3.6%	0 0%	4 14.3%	0 0%	23 82.1%	28 100%
Wales 84	4 8.7%	0 0%	9 19.6%	2 4.3%	31 67.4%	46 100%
North East 77	0 0%	0 0%	4 8.9%	1 2.2%	40 88.9%	45 100%
North West 251	8 6.3%	0 0%	6 4.7%	2 1.6%	111 87.4%	127 100%
Yorkshire and the Humber 187	4 4.2%	1 1.1%	5 5.3%	1 1.1%	84 88.4%	95 100%
East Midlands 132	3 5.8%	0 0%	3 5.8%	0 0%	46 88.5%	52 100%
West Midlands 154	6 8.7%	0 0%	3 4.3%	1 1.4%	59 85.5%	69 100%
East of England 224	6 5.3%	0 0%	9 8.0%	1 0.9%	97 85.8%	113 100%
London 820	28 4.4%	5 0.8%	43 6.7%	21 3.3%	543 84.8%	640 100%
South East 349	13 6.6%	3 1.5%	17 8.6%	5 2.5%	159 80.7%	197 100%
South West 180	3 3.0%	0 0%	11 10.9%	3 3.0%	84 83.2%	101 100%
Total 2,652	88 5.5%	9 0.6%	123 7.7%	38 2.4%	1,337 83.8%	1,595 100%

Note: Companies are only included where their gender balance is known. Total figures are shown under the regions for completeness.
Source: Beauhurst data extracted on 6 March 2023.

Table 3: Average and total funding, employees and turnover of companies split by the gender split of the founders for OECD defined HGEs across the UK

	OECD defined HGEs with at least one female founder[1]	OECD defined HGEs with at least one male founder[1]	OECD defined HGEs
Total number (Number reporting full financials last year[2])	252 (107)	1,518 (902)	2,651 (1,594)
Average per funding received [3] (Total)	5.78 million (£2.94 billion)	9.55 million (£35.0 billion)	9.17 million (£39.7 billion)
Average employees (Total)	186 (around 46,895)	233 (around 355,078)	240 (around 638,544)
Average turnover (Total)	£125 million (£13.3 billion)	£93.7 million (£84.4 billion)	£81.0 million (£129.0 billion)

Notes: [1] Companies are only included where their gender balance is known.  Total figures are shown for completeness.
[2] Company details reflect those that reported full financials in the last period.
[3] Data underlying is comprehensive for announced and unannounced equity fundraisings from 1st January 2011 to present.
Source: Beauhurst data extracted on 6 March 2023.

Appendix: Notes about the data

Source

The data used in this report is extracted from Beauhurst’s data platform.  Their data is collected from Companies House, business websites, and through data partnerships with granting bodies, investors, advisors, and universities. The information while collected, in part, by algorithm is verified manually to ensure its accuracy. Where data cannot be verified it is not included in the platform.

Extraction

The data was extracted from the Beauhurst data platform on 6 March 2023 as part of the subscription held by the Cabinet Office with that company.

Data was extracted based on a set of queries that:

(1) replicated the OECD’s definition of high growth enterprises where stated.

All enterprises with average annualised growth greater than 20% per annum, over a three year period should be considered as high-growth enterprises. Growth can be measured by the number of employees or by turnover. A meaningful size threshold  should be set to avoid the growth of small enterprises distorting the picture …. A provisional size threshold has been suggested as 10 employees at the beginning of the growth period.

Eurostat-OECD “Manual on Business Demography Statistics” (2007)

(2) added to that definition, as needed, to refine searches to specific locations or founders (based on their gender), or the reasons that Beauhurst tracked the data including, but not limited to, that they had received equity investment, graduated from a selected accelerator, spun out from an academic institution or reached scale up status.

The data has not been analysed further by the Cabinet Office, all figures represented are those extracted on 6 March 2023.

Limitations

Where data cannot be verified by Beauhurst using a manual process it has not been included in their platform and, as a result, treated as missing data.  Numbers included reflect data verified by Beauhurst only and no additional weighting has been applied following its extraction.