Official Statistics

Methodology and Quality Document - Business Insolvency Demography 2015 to 2025

Published 19 June 2026

These statistics are official statistics in development; they have been produced in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. We plan to continue developing the methodology of this statistics publication, with a view to removing the “in development” label for the 2026 publication to be released in 2027. If you have any feedback then please contact the statistics team by email statistics@insolvency.gov.uk.

1. Methodology

A business insolvency has been defined as a business for which at least one of its constituent companies has experienced a formal company insolvency procedure after being unable to pay their debts. Numbers of business insolvencies may differ from numbers of company insolvencies, since businesses can be made up of more than one company.

Businesses experiencing solvent company closures such as members’ voluntary liquidations and dissolutions are not included in these statistics. Information on business closures in general can be found in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business demography publication.

1.1 Calculation of rates

The numbers of business insolvencies in each of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were divided by the number of active registered businesses with legal status of ‘company’ on the ONS’s inter-departmental business register (IDBR). This denominator is used as only businesses registered as companies should be able to enter a company insolvency. The insolvency rate gives an indication of the probability of a business entering insolvency in each year.

This rate is derived from rounded volumes to align with disclosure requirements (Analysis Function disclosure control). Generally, the impact of this is small across most rates, but in some breakdowns where the numerator and denominator are particularly small, using rounded volumes when calculating rates can have a larger effect. For example, if eight out of 500 businesses entered insolvency, the rate would be 160 insolvencies per 10,000 businesses, while if 12 out of 500 businesses entered insolvency, the rate would be 240 insolvencies per 10,000 businesses. That is a difference of 80 insolvencies per 10,000 businesses, but in this publication, both would be rounded to 10 prior to rate calculation and would give the same rate (200 insolvencies per 10,000).

1.2 Tabulating numbers of business insolvencies

The main business insolvency tables present the overall numbers and rates of business insolvencies in each year from 2015 to 2025. All tables are split by year, insolvency type and a business demographic.

Company insolvency data were matched to business demographic data on the IDBR using company reference numbers. Companies that did not match to a business in the IDBR have been counted based on their registered location with Companies House and are included in the “Unknown” row of the accompanying data tables. These companies are excluded from other counts, including totals and breakdowns. This means that volumes and rates are likely to be slightly under-estimated. The matching success rate of insolvent companies to businesses on the IDBR was between 90% and 95% for each year.

Tables A1a and A1b present volumes and rates of business insolvencies by region across the United Kingdom. These regions are displayed with their codes in accordance with ONS’s names and codes for statistical geographies.

Tables B1a/b, C1a/b and D1a/b present volumes/rates of business insolvencies by industry, for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively. Industries are only provided at a 1-level Standard Industrial Classification (SIC).

Tables B2a/b, C2a/b and D2a/b present volumes/rates of business insolvencies by age, for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively. Age is the difference the registration date of the insolvency and the birth date of the business on the IDBR (see Data sources and data validation section for more detail). Volumes and rates are presented for nine age brackets.

Tables B3a/b, C3a/b and D3a/b present volumes/rates of business insolvencies by number of employees, for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, respectively. Insolvencies are grouped into eight employment brackets.

Tables B4a/b, C4a/b and D4a/b present volumes/rates of business insolvencies by annual turnover, for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, respectively. Volumes and rates are presented for ten turnover brackets.

Tables B5a/b, C5a/b and D5a/b present volumes/rates of business insolvencies by business size, for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, respectively. In this publication, the size of a business is based on the number of employees.

An annual time series with all the measures used in this publication can be found in the long-run comma-separated values (CSV) file on the main publication page.

1.3 Data sources and data validation

Company insolvency data used in this publication were sourced from Companies House, except for compulsory liquidation data for England and Wales, which were sourced from the Insolvency Service’s administrative systems. Companies House conducts a series of basic checks on the data, including the removal of duplicate records, prior to supplying the Insolvency Service with monthly snapshots of data to compile company insolvency statistics. Note that Companies House does not verify the accuracy of all information filed, as outlined in their disclaimer published on the Gov.uk website.

The company insolvency procedures included in this publication are administrations, creditors’ voluntary liquidations (CVLs), compulsory liquidations and “other”, which accounts for company voluntary arrangements (CVAs) and receivership appointments. Companies that entered CVL following administration are counted only as administrations and not CVLs, to avoid being counted twice. Moratoriums and restructuring plans are not included within this publication.

Between April 2016 and early 2019 there were a high number of CVLs registered for companies that should have only registered one CVL. These additional CVLs, known as ‘bulk’ CVLs, have been excluded.

Information on a business’s location, industry, age, employment and turnover were sourced from snapshots of the IDBR at the start of the calendar year in which the business entered insolvency. The IDBR is a comprehensive list of UK businesses used by government for statistical purposes.

The region of a business has been determined by the business’s registered postcode on the IDBR, which generally refers to the main operating site or the head office of the business. This means the region is not necessarily where staff are employed or where most of the business activity occurs. Businesses with postcodes outside of the United Kingdom have been excluded from this publication.

The industrial classification of any business held on the IDBR is based upon the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 2007 (SIC 2007). This information is sourced from ONS surveys, Value-Added Tax (VAT), Companies House or Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

The age of a business at the time of insolvency is calculated using the birth date of the business on the IDBR and the date the insolvency is registered with Companies House. The age of a business is not necessarily the same as the age of the company entering insolvency due to the businesses birth date being different to the company’s incorporation date. For businesses with multiple company insolvencies, if the insolvencies are registered within six months of each other, then the registration date for the first insolvency is used. If the insolvencies are more than six months apart, they are counted as separate insolvencies.

On the IDBR, the term ‘turnover’ relates to income received by a business from the ‘sales of goods and or services charged to third parties’. Annual turnover on the IDBR is generally sourced from the Annual Business Survey (ABS) or VAT information provided by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Turnover data should be treated with caution as they are mainly derived from administrative sources that ONS are unable to validate.

An employee is defined as anyone aged 16 or over who is paid directly from the payroll, in return for carrying out a full-time or part-time job or being on a training scheme. The number of employees is the overall headcount of staff, not the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE). Employment data on the IDBR is mainly sourced from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), but other sources include the Short Term Employment Survey (STES) and PAYE information provided by HMRC.

Businesses have been categorised into micro, small, medium or large based on the number of employees. In this publication, we have not used the definition of an SME set out by the Government Commercial Function (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises definition) because the employment data on the IDBR is headcount rather than FTE and information on balance sheets is not available. A micro business is defined as one with less than 10 employees, a small business is one with less than 50 employees, a medium business is one with 50 to 249 employees and a large business is one with 250 employees or more. The micro category is a subset of the small category and the micro, small and medium categories are all subsets of the Small- or Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) category, which is defined as a business with less than 250 employees.

2. Revisions

These statistics are subject to revisions, as set out in the published Revisions Policy. Revisions tend to be made as a result of data being entered onto administrative systems after the cut-off date for data being extracted to produce the statistics. Company insolvency data for the most recent year were extracted in February 2026. Data from the IDBR will not be revised.

This is the first annual publication of these statistics, and therefore there are no revisions. A similar statistical publication was published in 2018 (Corporate insolvencies by size, age and location, 2015 to 2017), but due to differing methodologies, revisions from this were not possible. Total rates for 2015 to 2017 in this publication were typically 2-6% lower than in the previous publication.

3. Quality

This section provides information on the quality of this business insolvency demography, to enable users to judge whether the data are of sufficient quality for their intended use.

The section is structured to align with the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System for statistical outputs.

Relevance: The degree to which the statistical product meets user needs in both coverage and content.

These statistics present business insolvencies for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, broken down by location, industry, age and size of the businesses.

These statistics are being published to supplement already existing insolvency statistics by giving insight on what types of business are more or less likely to enter insolvency. The Insolvency Service frequently received requests for statistics on this topic.

Key users of insolvency statistics include the Insolvency Service itself, which has policy responsibility for insolvency in England and Wales and for the non-devolved areas within Scotland and Northern Ireland; other government departments; Parliament; the insolvency profession; debt advice agencies; media organisations; academics; the financial sector; the business community and the general public. Insolvency statistics are typically widely reported in national, regional and specialist media on the day of release.

The statistical production team welcomes feedback from users of the Insolvency Statistics and can be emailed at statistics@insolvency.gov.uk.

Accuracy and reliability: Accuracy is the proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value. Reliability is the closeness of early estimations to subsequent estimated values.

All formal insolvency procedures entered into by a company, a partnership or an individual are required by law to be reported to the appropriate body, so Insolvency Service statistics should be a complete record of insolvency in the United Kingdom.

Some checks are in place to identify and remove duplication of cases, to ensure that returns cover all reporting areas, and to check consistency within tables and between related tables.

Note that insolvency data are extracted from live administrative systems and therefore subject to routine revisions as systems are updated.

The Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) is a comprehensive list of UK businesses used by government for statistical purposes. The main two sources of input are Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records from HMRC. Since these main sources have thresholds, very small businesses operating below these will, in most cases, not be included.

Accuracy and completeness of geographic data

Businesses have been classified into regions on the basis of the postcode on the IDBR. A small number of postcodes are classed as “Foreign”; these have been removed from the data. The postcode of a business pertains to the head office of the business, and is not necessarily where all of the activity of the business occurs.

Accuracy and completeness of industry data

The industrial classification of any business held on the IDBR is based upon the UK Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 2007 (SIC). Counts and rates are provided at 1-level SIC, which consists of 21 sectors. More granular SIC data is not provided in this publication, however counts of company insolvencies at 3-level SIC can be found in the monthly company insolvency statistics.

Accuracy and completeness of age data

The age of a business at the time of insolvency is calculated using the birth date of the business on the IDBR (i.e. the date it was added to the IDBR) and the date the insolvency is registered with Companies House. This is not synonymous with the incorporation date of a company (see data sources section for more detail).

Accuracy and completeness of employment and turnover data

Employment data on the IDBR is mainly sourced from the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), but other sources include the Short Term Employment Survey (STES) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) information provided by HMRC. The number of employees of a business tends to include company owners working in the business, but excludes proprietors of unincorporated businesses.

Annual turnover on the IDBR is generally sourced from the Annual Business Survey (ABS) or Value-added Tax (VAT) information provided by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The turnover data broadly refers to the previous calendar year. Turnover data should be treated with caution as they are mainly derived from administrative sources that the ONS and The Insolvency Service are unable to validate.

Employment and turnover are partially sourced from surveys, so counts, rates and aggregations within these sections should be treated as estimates.

Timeliness and punctuality: Timeliness refers to the elapsed time between publication and the period to which the data refer. Punctuality refers to the time lag between the actual and planned dates of publication.

This publication uses two snapshots from the IDBR, one from December and one from March. The company insolvency data used in the publication was extracted in February 2026. June 2026 was the earliest it was possible to publish given the time needed to produce figures, format products and quality assure the results.

The publication schedule for these statistics, and all other Insolvency Service statistics, can be found on the UK National Statistics Publication Hub.

Comparability and coherence: Comparability is the degree to which data can be compared over time and domain. Coherence is the degree to which data are derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, are similar.

The Insolvency Service produces monthly company insolvency statistics, which include volumes and rates of companies entering formal insolvency procedures. Figures do not align with this publication as they relate to all registered companies, whereas this publication relates to registered businesses. For comparison, in England and Wales in 2025, there were 2.1 million active businesses which had a legal status of company (Business population estimates 2025), while there were around 4.9 million registered companies on the effective register (Companies House register activities statistics). This means that the overall business insolvency rate for 2025 in these statistics (116 per 10,000 businesses) was higher than the company insolvency rate in the monthly Company Insolvency Statistics (52.5 per 10,000 registered companies). The previous publication of a similar nature (Corporate insolvencies by size, age and location, 2015 to 2017) is not directly comparable due to methodological differences, with total rates in this publication typically 2-6% lower than the previous publication.

Companies House produces official statistics on companies in liquidation and in dissolution. However, totals do not align with the insolvency statistics, since they include companies that wound up voluntarily. There are also small differences between numbers resulting from differences in methodology and data sources.

The Gazette (formally the combination of three publications: The London Gazette, The Belfast Gazette and The Edinburgh Gazette) is an official journal of record consisting of statutory notices, including company insolvency notices. The timings of the publication of Gazette notices and the registration of company insolvencies at Companies House may differ and therefore the numbers of insolvencies in a specified time period may not align. Notifications of CVAs are not published.

The Office for National Statistics also produces annual statistics on business “deaths” in its Business Demography publication. Again, figures do not align with Insolvency Service statistics as business deaths include all types of dissolution in addition to insolvencies.

The Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB), Scotland’s insolvency service is required to be notified of all company liquidations and receiverships in Scotland, and publishes official statistics based on its own administrative records. These differ from the Insolvency Service statistics, which use data from Companies House as the source. Differences are due to the AiB using its own administrative system’s date rather than the date of registration at Companies House. The AiB does not publish information on the number of company voluntary arrangements or administrations, which are a reserved matter for the UK government.

Accessibility and clarity: Accessibility is the ease with which users are able to access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available and the availability of supporting information. Clarity refers to the quality and sufficiency of metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice.

Insolvency statistics are available free of charge to the end user on the Gov.uk website and they meet the standards required under the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

The accompanying data tables are formatted in line with current guidance for producers of official statistics to help improve the usability, accessibility and machine readability of spreadsheets.

Historical insolvency data are also published for the key series, on the National Archives website.

Views on the clarity of the publication are welcomed via email: statistics@insolvency.gov.uk.