Official Statistics

Business population estimates for the UK and regions 2026: statistical release

Published 5 November 2026

Headline statistics

The number of private sector businesses in the United Kingdom (UK) at the start of 2026 was 5.6 million

Of these private sector businesses:

• 5.54 million businesses were small (0 to 49 employees)
• 39,220 businesses were medium-sized (50 to 249 employees)
• 8,355 businesses were large (250 or more employees)

Compared with 2025, the private sector business population has decreased by 1.8% (104,000 businesses).

Figure 1: number of private sector businesses in the UK, 2010 to 2026

Download this chart’s data

As shown in Figure 1, business numbers have increased from 4.5 million in 2010 to a peak of around 6.0 million at the start of 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK withdrawal from the European Union. Since 2021, the business numbers has fluctuated around 5.6 million.

What you need to know about these statistics

The status of the publication was changed to official statistics in development (from accredited official statistics) in 2024 to reflect a similar change in status to Labour Force Survey data that underlies estimates of unregistered business data included in the publication. The status of the 2026 publication remains as official statistics in development. The ‘Further information’ section provides additional details under the heading ‘Official statistics in development’.

This publication provides the only official estimate of the total number of private sector businesses in the UK at the start of each year.

Businesses covered in this publication include both those registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and unregistered businesses. Figures on unregistered businesses are estimates and therefore subject to uncertainty, as are figures that combine data on registered and unregistered businesses. The VAT threshold was increased from £85,000 to £90,000 from 1 April 2024 and remains the same at the time of the 2026 estimates.

Because unregistered business numbers are estimated, changes in counts of businesses that include unregistered businesses may reflect real changes in the population, or may be due to sampling error. At more detailed levels of breakdown by geography and industry, levels of uncertainty increase and estimates become less robust. The section ‘Uncertainty in the business population estimates’ provides further information.

These estimates, produced by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), cover a wider range of businesses than Office for National Statistics (ONS) outputs, which report on registered businesses only. Refer to the ‘Further information’ section for links to ONS publications under the heading ‘Related statistics’ and Guide to business statistics for an explanation of how each publication differs.

Introduction

This publication provides information on private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2026, broken down by number of employees, legal status, industry, and geography. Employment and turnover data are also provided, primarily for use in classifying businesses by employee size band and to calculate shares of employment and turnover across industrial sectors, regions, and legal statuses. The recommended source of data on private sector employment is ONS’s monthly Labour Market Statistics. For turnover data,  ONS’s Annual Business Survey is the recommended source.

Counts of businesses (and associated employment and turnover) are based on businesses’ head office locations. A business operating in a particular English region or country with a head office located elsewhere is not included in the business count for the region or country in question.

The publication:

• reports on businesses in the private sector

• excludes the government and not-for-profit sectors; an overview of the number of businesses in the whole economy is provided in Table 2 of the detailed tables

• estimates numbers of private sector businesses by combining estimated numbers of unregistered businesses with data on registered businesses derived from a comprehensive business register (the ONS Inter-Departmental Business Register)

• measures net changes in numbers of private sector businesses, but cannot be used to estimate numbers of business start-ups or closures

• quantifies uncertainty around key estimates of business numbers

• comprises this statistical release, plus a set of detailed tables, a methodology note and the data underlying each chart

Trends in the business population

Between 2010 and 2026:

• the total business population has increased by 1.1 million (24.6%) 

• business numbers increased from 4.5 million in 2010 to a peak of 6.0 million at the start of 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK withdrawal from the European Union, but have subsequently fallen since that peak

• the largest year-on-year increase was 6.8% between 2013 and 2014, followed by 5.0% between 2011 and 2012

• the largest year-on-year decrease in the series since 2010 was 6.5% between 2020 and 2021

• numbers of registered businesses increased by 575,000 (27.1%)

Between 2020 and 2026:

• the total business population decreased by 394,000 (6.6%)

• numbers of employing businesses increased by 59,000 (4.2%), while non-employing business numbers decreased by 453,000 (9.9%)

• the decrease in non-employing businesses resulted from a decrease in unregistered businesses of 437,000 (13.1%) and a decrease in non-employing registered businesses of 15,000 (1.2%) 

• numbers of all registered businesses increased by 44,000 (1.7%)

Between 2025 and 2026:

• the total business population decreased by 104,000 (1.8%)

• numbers of employing businesses increased by 54,000 (3.8%), while non-employing business numbers decreased by 157,000 (3.7%)

• the decrease in non-employing businesses resulted from a decrease in unregistered businesses of 154,000 (5.1%) and a decrease in non-employing registered businesses of 3,000 (0.3%)

• numbers of all registered businesses increased by 51,000 (1.9%)

The net change in the business population is determined by the balance of new business start-ups and de-mergers (inflows) against those businesses that closed, merged or were taken over by another business (outflows)

Further information on trends is in Tables A and B, Figures 2 and 3, and Tables 25 to 29 of the detailed tables.

Table A: estimated number of businesses (in thousands) in the UK private sector by employment size band, start of 2010, and 2020 to 2026

Employment size band	2010	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026
All private sector	4,483	5,981	5,591	5,509	5,555	5,499	5,690	5,587
All SME (0 to 249)	4,477	5,973	5,583	5,501	5,547	5,491	5,682	5,578
All small (0 to 49)	4,447	5,937	5,548	5,465	5,510	5,453	5,643	5,539
All employers (1 or more)	1,224	1,413	1,416	1,448	1,445	1,427	1,418	1,472
Non-employers	3,259	4,568	4,175	4,061	4,110	4,072	4,273	4,115
Micro (1 to 9)	1,015	1,157	1,162	1,187	1,177	1,161	1,151	1,199
Small (10 to 49)	174	212	211	217	223	220	220	225
Medium (50 to 249)	29	36	36	36	37	38	38	39
Large (250 or more)	6	8	8	8	8	8	8	8

Download this table’s data

Growth in the UK private sector business population since 2010 has mainly been due to increasing numbers of non-employing businesses, as shown in Figures 2 and 3. Since 2010:

• the number of non-employing businesses has increased by 857,000 (26.3%)

• the number of employing businesses has increased by 247,000 (20.2%)

• non-employing businesses accounted for 78% of total business growth over the period

Figure 2: growth in the number of UK private sector businesses by size band, 2010 to 2026 (index: base year = 2010)

Download this chart’s data

Figure 3: non-employing and employing businesses in the UK private sector, 2010 and 2020 to 2026

Download this chart’s data

Overall, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has increased by 1.1 million (25%) since 2010, including 245,000 SME employers (20%). Over this period:

• the number of small employing businesses increased by 20%

• the number of medium-sized employers increased by 34%

• the number of large businesses increased by 33%

In terms of legal status, between 2010 and 2026:

• the number of sole proprietorships (an unincorporated business run by one self-employed person) increased by 325,000 (12%) and the number of companies increased by 892,000 (70%)

• in contrast, the number of ordinary partnerships has decreased by 113,000 (25%)

Between 2025 and 2026 (as shown in Table B):

• the number of ordinary partnerships decreased by 25,000 (7%) and the number of sole proprietorships decreased by 137,000 (4%)

• in contrast, the number of companies increased by 58,000 (3%)

Table B: changes in the number of businesses, by legal status, between the start of 2025 and the start of 2026

Type of business	Sole proprietorships	Ordinary  partnerships	Companies	Total
Unregistered businesses	−134,100	−20,000	N/A	−154,100
Registered businesses	−2,600	−5,000	58,300	50,600
Breakdown of registered business
With employees	−5,500	−3,900	63,400	53,900
Without employees	2,900	−1,100	−5,100	−3,300
All private sector businesses	−136,700	−25,000	58,300	−104,000

Notes for Table B:

• numbers of businesses are rounded, in order to avoid disclosure. Consequently, totals may not exactly match the sum of their parts

• unregistered businesses (none of which have employees) comprise self-employed people working alone or in partnership

• N/A (not applicable): BPE methodology assumes all companies are registered

• ‘registered’ businesses are those businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE

Download this table’s data

In terms of employment trends, between 2025 and 2026:

• total employment across all private sector businesses increased from 28.1 million to 28.3 million, an increase of 0.7%

• total employment in SMEs increased from 16.9 million to 17.0 million, an increase of 0.6%

• the SME share of total employment remains the same at 60%

Further information on employment trends is in Table 28 of the detailed tables.

Composition of the 2026 business population

The UK private sector comprises largely of non-employing businesses and small employers, as shown in Table C. SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) account for 99.85% of the business population. At the start of 2026:

• there were estimated to be 5.6 million UK private sector businesses

• 1.5 million (26%) businesses had employees and 4.1 million (74%) did not employ anyone aside from the owners

• there were 5.54 million small businesses (with 0 to 49 employees), 99.15% of the total business population

• there were 39,220 medium-sized businesses (with 50 to 249 employees), 0.70% of the total business population

• a further 8,355 businesses were large businesses (with 250 or more employees), 0.15% of the total business population

Table C: estimated number of businesses in the UK private sector and their associated employment and turnover, by size of business, start of 2026

Business size	Businesses	Employment (thousands)	Turnover (£ millions)
All businesses	5,586,835	28,323	5,544,518
SMEs (0 to 249 employees)	5,578,480	16,980	2,776,745
Small businesses (0 to 49 employees)	5,539,260	13,182	1,812,095
With no employees	4,115,175	4,474	355,565
All employers	1,471,660	23,850	5,188,953
Of which:
1 to 9 employees	1,198,870	4,287	704,436
10 to 49 employees	225,215	4,421	752,094
50 to 249 employees	39,220	3,798	964,651
250 or more employees	8,355	11,344	2,767,773

Notes for Table C:

• turnover column: figures exclude businesses in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007 Section K  (Financial and Insurance Activities) where turnover is not available on a comparable basis

• the ‘with no employees’ category comprises sole proprietorships and partnerships with only self-employed owner-managers and companies with one employee, assumed to be a working proprietor

Download this table’s data

The 8,355 large businesses in the UK make a major contribution to employment and turnover. Nonetheless, as shown in Figure 4, at the start of 2026:

• total employment in SMEs was 17 million (60% of the total), while turnover was estimated at £2.78 trillion (50%)

• employment in small businesses was 13.2 million (47%) and turnover £1.8 trillion (33%)

• employment in medium-sized businesses was 3.8 million (13%) and turnover £0.96 trillion (17%)

• employment in large businesses was 11.3 million (40%) and turnover £2.8 trillion (50%)

Further information on composition is shown in Table 1 in the detailed tables that accompany this publication and in Figure 4.

Figure 4: contribution of different-sized businesses to total population, employment and turnover, start of 2026

Note for Figure 4:

• turnover figures exclude SIC 2007 Section K (financial and insurance activities) where turnover is not available on a comparable basis

Download this chart’s data

Legal status

There are 3 main forms of legal status that businesses in the private sector can take; sole proprietorships, ordinary partnerships, and companies. The most common legal status is that of sole proprietorship, as shown in Figure 5. At the start of 2026:

• the UK private sector business population comprised 3.1 million sole proprietorships (55% of the total), 2.2 million actively trading companies (39%) and 343,000 ordinary partnerships (6%)

• 1.22 million companies were employers, as were 175,000 sole proprietorships and 77,000 ordinary partnerships

• 2.9 million sole proprietorships, 943,000 companies and 265,000 ordinary partnerships did not employ anyone aside from the owners

Further information on legal status is given in Figure 5 and Table B, and Table 3 of the detailed tables.

Figure 5: number of businesses in the UK private sector with and without employees, by legal status, start of 2026

Download this chart’s data

Registration for VAT and PAYE

Around three-quarters of UK private sector businesses are non-employers. The majority of these are not registered for either VAT or PAYE. At the start of 2026:

• ONS recorded 2.7 million private sector businesses as registered for VAT and/or PAYE, 48% of the estimated total population

• 2.9 million businesses (52%) were trading without being registered for VAT or PAYE and are classified here as unregistered

• 377,000 sole proprietorships (12%) and 157,000 ordinary partnerships (46%) were registered for VAT and/or PAYE

The proportion of registered businesses compared to unregistered businesses has increased since 2020, when 44% of businesses were registered.

UK countries and English regions

Counts of businesses (and associated employment and turnover) are based on businesses’ head office locations. A business operating in a particular English region/country with a head office located elsewhere is not included in the business count for the region/country in question.

Private sector businesses are not evenly distributed across the UK. London and the South East of England have considerably more businesses than any other UK country or region of England, as shown in Figure 6. At the start of 2026:

• there were 4.9 million private sector businesses in England, 359,000 in Scotland, 196,000 in Wales, and 129,000 in Northern Ireland

• London (1.01 million) and the South East of England (864,000) had the most private sector businesses, accounting for 33.5% of the UK business population

• the North East (163,000) had the fewest private sector businesses of the English regions, accounting for only 2.9% of the UK business population

Further information on location is in Table 9 of the detailed tables.

Figure 6: number of private sector businesses by English region and UK country, start of 2026

Download this chart’s data

Between 2025 and 2026:

• the number of private sector businesses decreased by 94,000 in England, by 2,000 in Scotland and by 10,000 in Northern Ireland; however, there was a increase by 2,000 in Wales

• in percentage terms, the private sector business population decreased by 2% in England, by 1% in Scotland and by 7% in Northern Ireland; the increase in Wales was by 1%

• the number of private sector businesses decreased in 7 of the 9 English regions

• the East Midlands was the English region with the largest numeric decrease (46,000), followed by London (35,000) and the South West (31,000); the largest percentage decrease was in the East Midlands (11%)

• the North West (42,000) and Yorkshire and the Humber (23,000) were the only English regions where the number of businesses increased since 2025; in percentage terms, the North West saw an increase of 8% whereas Yorkshire and the Humber saw an increase of 6%

• in all regions and countries, changes were driven largely by changes in the number of unregistered businesses

Since 2020:

• the number of businesses has decreased in all the UK countries and regions, except Yorkshire and the Humber

• the number of businesses has increased by 9,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber

• the country with the largest percentage decrease is Northern Ireland (13%), where the number of businesses has decreased by 19,000; the largest numeric decrease has occurred in England (351,000)

• the English region with the largest decrease is London (11%), where the number of businesses has decreased by 127,000

Since 2010:

• the number of businesses has increased in all the UK countries and regions

• the largest increase, in percentage terms, has been in London (40%)

• the smallest percentage increase has been in Wales (3%)

Further information on regional trends is in Table 26 of the detailed tables.

At the start of 2026, as shown in Figure 7:

• London had the largest number of businesses per 10,000 adults (1,362); there were also relatively high densities in the South East (1,100), the South West (1,082) and the East of England (1,055)

• Wales (742) had the lowest business density of any UK country and the North East had the lowest among English regions (714)

• Northern Ireland (836) and Scotland (772) also had lower business densities compared to England (1,025)

 Further information on business density is in Table 8 in the detailed tables.

Figure 7: business density in the UK private sector by UK region and country, start of 2026

Download this chart’s data

Industries

SMEs account for at least 99% of the overall population in each of the main industry sectors and therefore determine the distribution of the business population overall, as shown in Figure 8. At the start of 2026:

• the sector with the largest number of SMEs (846,000 or 15%) was construction, compared with 35,000 (less than 1%) operating in the mining, quarrying and utilities sector

• there were also large numbers of SMEs operating in professional, scientific and technical activities (778,000 or 14%) and in wholesale and retail trade (523,000 or 9%)

Figure 8: industrial sectors with most SMEs, as percentage of total SME numbers, start of 2026

Download this chart’s data

SMEs accounted for 60% of employment and 50% of turnover at the start of 2026. The wholesale and retail trade sector had the largest share of both SME employment and SME turnover, as shown in Figure 9. At the start of 2026:

• wholesale and retail trade accounted for 14% of all SME employment and 31% of SME turnover in the UK private sector

• around 41% of SME turnover was spread across 4 more sectors; construction (12%), professional, scientific and technical (11%), administrative and support service activities (9%) and manufacturing (9%)

• the same 4 sectors also accounted for around 40% of SME employment

Further information for industries is in Table 5 in the detailed tables.

Figure 9: industrial sectors with highest SME turnover and employment, as percentage of total SME employment and turnover, start of 2026

Notes for Figure 9:

• turnover figures exclude SIC 2007 Section K (financial and insurance activities) where turnover is not available on a comparable basis

• accommodation and food service activities had the fourth largest share of SME employment in 2026 (9.5%), but accounted for only 3.1% of SME turnover

Download this chart’s data

Large businesses accounted for 40% of employment and 50% of turnover. At the start of 2026:

• the sector with the most large businesses was manufacturing (1,245), followed by administrative and support service activities (1,170) and wholesale and retail trade (1,150)

• wholesale and retail trade was the largest sector in terms of large business employment and turnover, accounting for 22% of all large business employment and 32% of large business turnover in the UK private sector

• the second largest sector in terms of large business employment was administrative and support service activities, which accounted for 13% of the total

• the second largest sector in terms of large business turnover was manufacturing, which accounted for 18% of the total

Between 2025 and 2026:

• the greatest numeric increase in total business numbers was in other service activities (14,000); the percentage increase was greatest in mining, quarrying and utilities (25%)

• the greatest numeric decrease in total business numbers was in professional, scientific and technical activities (41,000); the percentage decrease was greatest in transportation and storage (6%)

• among registered businesses, the largest increases in business numbers were in construction, real estate activities, and professional, scientific and technical activities, with business numbers increasing by 8,000 in all three sectors; the percentage increase was greatest in education (7%), followed by real estate activities (6%)

• the largest decreases in registered business numbers were in administrative and support service activities (4,000) and manufacturing (2,000), representing a 2% decrease in both cases

Since 2020:

• real estate activities had the largest numeric increase (27,000) and percentage increase (21%)

• the decrease in total business numbers was largest in construction (146,000) and professional, scientific and technical activities (95,000)

• in percentage terms, the largest decreases were in construction (15%) and administrative and support service activities (11%)

• among registered businesses, the largest increases in business numbers were in construction (42,000), real estate activities (28,000) and accommodation and food service activities (21,000), with the largest percentage increases in real estate activities (28%) and human health and social work activities (23%)

• the largest decreases in registered business numbers were in professional, scientific and technical activities (40,000) and information and communication (35,000)

• the largest decreases in percentage terms were in information and communication (16%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (9%)

Uncertainty in the business population estimates

Numbers of unregistered businesses reported in this publication are estimated, based on Labour Force Survey (LFS) data. This leads to uncertainty in the total count of businesses in the private sector, which comprises the sum of unregistered business numbers and registered business numbers. Registered businesses are not estimated, being derived from an administrative data source, the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). IDBR data does contain other sources of error, which are likely to be small for counts of businesses. These are not captured in the measurements of uncertainty used in this publication, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and coefficients of variation (CVs).

CIs indicate a range of values around an estimate within which the ‘true’ value of the estimate is likely to lie, with 95% probability. CIs are the same both for estimates of unregistered business numbers and for estimates of total private sector businesses numbers.

CVs, which represent the ratio of an estimate’s standard error (SE) to the estimate itself expressed as a percentage, indicate the quality of estimates. The smaller the CV, the more precise the estimate. Values less than 5% indicate that an estimate is precise for most practical purposes; those over 20% indicate that an estimate is unreliable. CVs are larger for estimates of unregistered business numbers than for estimates which combine registered with unregistered business numbers.

The 95% CI around the total number of private sector businesses at the start of 2026, estimated at 5,587,000, is ±109,000. On this basis:

• there is a 95% probability that the total number of businesses in the private sector was between 5,478,000 and 5,695,000

• the CV is 1%, indicating the estimate is precise

This means that, although this year’s estimates show an overall decrease in the number of businesses since 2025, the relatively small magnitude of this decrease combined with the uncertainty that comes from the part of the estimate that is based on survey data means that we cannot confidently state there has been a fall in the real business population. In 2025, we could state with 95% confidence that the business population at the start of the year lay between 5,567,000 and 5,813,000. In 2026, we can state with 95% confidence that the business population at the start of the year lay between 5,478,000 and 5,695,000.

Figure 10: estimated private sector businesses numbers in each English region, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with 95% CIs, start of 2026

Download this chart’s data

For data shown in Figure 10:

• the smallest CV for the countries and English regions is 2% for the South East, indicating the estimate is precise

• the estimate for the North East has the largest CV (6%), though estimate quality is still good

For total private sector businesses numbers in England (not shown in Figure 10), estimated at 4,903,000, the 95% CI is ±102,000 and the CV is 1%, indicating a precise estimate.

Figure 11: estimated private sector businesses numbers by industrial sector, with 95% CIs, start of 2026

Download this chart’s data

For data shown in Figure 11:

• the estimates for Sectors F (construction), G (wholesale and retail trade), and M (professional, scientific and technical activities) had the smallest CVs (all 2%), indicating these estimates were precise

• the combined sector B, D and E (mining, quarrying and utilities) had the largest CV (11%), indicating the estimate was acceptable

In recent years, levels of uncertainty in the estimates have increased slightly compared to the levels of uncertainty observed when these were first produced in 2020. While uncertainty around top-level estimates remains low, at lower levels changes have been more marked in some years. For instance, in 2025 the average CV for unregistered businesses in English regions had increased from around 6% in 2020 to 7%. ONS data indicates these changes are driven by changes in LFS sample. For the 2026 estimates, the average CV is once again around 6%, but the factors driving the tendency to increase are still present.

Table 30 in the detailed tables provides further details of CIs and CVs for all business numbers and unregistered business numbers at the country and English region level, by industry sector, and at the more detailed level of industry sector by country and English region.

The statistical significance of changes in the business population over time can be partially assessed by comparing CIs around estimates. Non-overlapping CIs indicate significant changes. However, in cases where CIs do overlap, changes may still be significant.

CIs around 2026 estimates overlapped with CIs around 2025 estimates for all English regions, UK countries and sector level breakdowns.

Comparing 2026 estimates to 2020 estimates:

• there were significant decreases in both total and unregistered business numbers in the UK, England and London. There was also a significant decrease in unregistered business numbers in Northern Ireland

• there were significant decreases in both total and unregistered business numbers in sector F (construction), and in total business numbers in sector M (professional, scientific and technical activities)

• in contrast, there was a significant increase in total business numbers in sector L (real estate activities)

The processes used to quantify uncertainty in this publication are described in the ‘Accuracy’ section in the Methodology and quality note.

Technical information

This publication is the latest in a series providing estimates of the total number of private sector businesses in the UK. It estimates the total number of UK private sector businesses at the start of each calendar year, including those that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE and those that are unregistered. Related ONS publications report only on VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses.

A Guide to business statistics explains how this publication relates to other official statistics on business population and demography, helping users understand the differences and choose the most appropriate source.

There is no single database of all private sector businesses in the UK. The main source for this publication is the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), managed by ONS, which is used to provide data on VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses in the UK. This publication also includes estimates of smaller non-employing (unregistered) businesses which are calculated using a combination of information from the ONS Labour Force Survey and HMRC self-assessment tax return data. More detail on the estimation process is provided in the Methodology and quality note.

Companies can take a range of legal forms, including Public Limited Companies, Private Limited Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and others. The IDBR only includes those companies registered for VAT and/or PAYE, rather than all those recorded on the Companies House register. A paper published as part of the 2023 BPE assesses how this may impact data in the publication.

This edition uses the same methodology as that used since the 2011 edition of this publication. The methodology differs from that used for BPE 2010 and the older SME Statistics series (1994 to 2009), available on the National Archives website.

Information on business employment and turnover is also provided. The function of this data is primarily to (i) classify businesses by employee size band and (ii) calculate shares of employment and turnover across industrial sectors, regions, and legal statuses. This release includes an employment time-series in Table 28 of the detailed tables. However, users should note that these employment estimates are indicative: ONS publishes other sources of employment data more suitable for monitoring total jobs and people in employment. See the ONS Workforce Jobs series, the ONS Business Registers Employment Survey (BRES), and the wider Labour Market Statistics (refer to the Methodology and quality note for more information). Likewise, for registered businesses the recommended source of turnover data is the ONS Annual Business Survey.

IDBR employment data is updated from administrative sources, namely HMRC PAYE records and ONS surveys. It is recommended that ONS Business Register Employment Survey (BRES) estimates are used as the main source of employment information for detailed industry and geographical employment comparisons for registered businesses. The only time that IDBR employment should be considered for use is for very small areas, below the level of BRES publication.

IDBR turnover is updated via administrative sources (HMRC VAT records) and ONS Business Surveys. It is recommended that the ONS Annual Business Survey (ABS) turnover estimates are used as the main source of turnover information for detailed industry and geographical turnover comparisons. The only time that IDBR turnover should be considered for use is for very small areas, or fine cross-tabulations, below the level of ABS publication.

Turnover data throughout this release excludes SIC 2007 Section K (financial and insurance activities) as turnover is not available on a comparable basis.

The definition of the private sector used in this publication excludes the non-profit sector but includes public corporations and nationalised bodies.

Businesses that have sites (and employees) in more than one region or country are counted here only in the region or country where they are registered. These estimates will therefore differ from actual employment in a region.

All figures and percentages in this document are rounded. Therefore, totals may not exactly match the sum of their parts. Suppression and controlled rounding have been used to protect the data underlying this publication from disclosure. For further information, refer to the Methodology and Quality note.

For data relating to business births, deaths and survivals, it is recommended that the ONS Business Demography publication is used as the main source.

Due to delays in the rollout of the ONS Labour Force Survey transformation, anticipated changes to the methodology flagged in the 2023 edition of the BPE have not been implemented.

The first set of changes under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act were introduced on 4 March 2024. The act gives Companies House the power to play a more significant role in tackling economic crime and supporting economic growth. Over time, the measures will lead to improved transparency and more accurate and trusted information on the Companies House register. It also increased the cost of registering a company.

Definitions and terminology

Term	Description
Company	companies can take a range of legal forms, including Public Limited Companies, Private Limited Companies, Limited Liability Partnerships, and others such as public corporations and nationalised bodies in which the working directors are classed as employees
Employers	a business employing one or more employees; to note a company with a single employee director is treated as having no employees
Large business	a business with 250 or more employees
Medium-sized business	a business with 50 to 249 employees
Ordinary partnership	an unincorporated business run by 2 or more self-employed people
Non-employing business	non-employing businesses are those without employees; however, in the BPE companies with only one employee are classified as having no employees under the assumption that this will be a working proprietor
Small business	a business with 0 to 49 employees
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)	businesses with 0 to 249 employees
Sole proprietorship	an unincorporated business run by one self-employed person

Further information

Future updates to these statistics

The next publication in this series is scheduled for autumn 2027.

Related statistics

UK business; activity, size and location, published annually by the ONS, gives information about registered UK businesses broken down by legal status, industry, region, employment and turnover size bands.

Business Demography, published annually by the ONS, provides information on births, deaths and survivals of registered businesses in the UK, by geographical areas and standard industrial classification groups.

Business Demography, Quarterly, official statistics in development, has also been published since August 2020.

Small Business Survey reports are published annually by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and detail the performance of small and medium-sized businesses. Reports also contain sociodemographic information about business owners (gender, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, and whether a family business).

Business and innovation statistics are produced by the Scottish Government; these include the annual Businesses in Scotland publication, which provides information on numbers of registered enterprises (businesses) operating in Scotland, broken down by industry, business size, local authority area, urban/rural area, and country of ownership.

Business Structure, published annually by the Welsh Government, contains data on the estimated number of registered businesses active in Wales.

Northern Ireland business; activity, size and location, published annually by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, provides an overview of Northern Ireland’s registered business population.

Further information on other sources of business and employment data is available in Annex E of the Methodology and quality note.

Revisions policy

The department’s statistical revisions policy sets out the revisions policy for these statistics, which has been developed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

Uses of these statistics

This publication is used extensively by government, the public, public bodies, and businesses to analyse the scale, structure and significance of the total business population in the UK and to monitor change over time. For example, these estimates are used by:

• government in understanding the likely impact of policy changes and monitoring the impact of recessions on different sections of the business population

• businesses in understanding market share and planning marketing strategies

• banks in developing an understanding of their customer base

• foreign firms in making UK location decisions

• academics to inform research into businesses at a local and national level

• a range of public bodies in decision-making and in evaluating the success of regeneration and business-related policies

• public and private business support providers in targeting business support

User engagement

Users are encouraged to provide comments and feedback on how these statistics are used and how well they meet user needs. Comments on any issues relating to this statistical release are welcomed and should be sent to: business.statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) reviewed the ONS’s Business Demography statistics and reported their findings in October 2020. In determining how to meet the requirements set out in the report, ONS set up a steering group of important business demography users. Since the business demography steering group was accounting for the underlying data source and general quality issues on the IDBR, the scope of the group was expanded to cover all outputs from the business register and any issues facing register users. The name of the group was changed to the ‘Business Register User Group’.

This statement on statistical public engagement and data standards sets out the department’s commitments on public engagement and data standards as outlined by the Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

Official statistics in development

Between 2012 and 2023 editions of the BPE were accredited official statistics (referred to as National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007).

The status of these statistics was lowered to official statistics in development by OSR in 2024, at the request of the Department for Business and Trade (DBT; the publisher of these statistics at the time), to reflect a similar change in the status of the LFS data from which estimates of unregistered businesses included in the publication are derived.

Although the ONS has since reviewed this decision in 2026, and will publish the LFS and LFS-based outputs as official statistics, this publication will remain official statistics in development this year. This is because LFS outputs were classified as official statistics in development at the time of production.

Therefore the status of the Business Population Estimates 2026 publication remains as official statistics in development. Official statistics in development status means that these statistics are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

The OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

Users are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards.

Alternatively, contact the OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

The most recent accreditation of the BPE as an accredited official statistic, prior to the change of status described above, was in August 2022 following a compliance check by the OSR. The UK Statistics Authority previously assessed these statistics in 2012. Between 2012 and 2023 they complied with the standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

Since the 2012 review, the following improvements have been made:

• alterations to processing of ONS Labour Force Survey (2013 and 2016) and HMRC self-assessment tax returns (2016) data have improved data quality

• there has been a reduction in the number of people with pre-release access to the publication

• changes were made to the format and layout of the statistical release in 2019 to make it more accessible and consistent with the format of similar publications

• since 2019 detailed tables are published in OpenDocument spreadsheet format as well as Excel format, for accessibility purposes

• in 2020, uncertainty around key estimates of business numbers was quantified, with further information detailing uncertainty at the sector by region level added in the 2021 publication

• in 2021 a new time series table was added to the detailed tables detailing changes in numbers of businesses by industrial sector

• in 2022 the detailed tables were published in accessible format

• in 2023 Tables 1 to 3 included additional employment size splits for large businesses and a research paper exploring unregistered companies (which are not included in the BPE) was published alongside the publication

The OSR compliance check in August 2022 identified 3 areas that would enhance the trustworthiness, quality and value of Business Population Estimates (BPE):

• ensure users are informed about differences between the BPE, ONS’s Business Demography and ONS’s UK Business; Activity, Size and Location statistics and changes made to BPE statistics, such as the inclusion of composite management service companies between 2004 and 2017

• the team confirmed it has a user-led programme of development for the BPE which is reviewed regularly and meets user priorities. Adding a summary of the development plans to the bulletin may further enhance user engagement and contribute positively to the development of the statistics

• DBT is aware of the user need for other information about businesses, such as sociodemographic information about business owners mentioned in the methodology note. It may be beneficial to users for DBT to include links to alternative data sources such as the Longitudinal Small Business Survey in the BPE bulletin

In response to these recommendations:

• an up-to-date guide has been produced to inform about the differences between BPE, ONS Business Demography and ONS UK Business; Activity, Size and Location statistics. The technical information section and the Methodology and quality note inform users about changes to BPE statistics

• composite and managed service companies were set up to take advantage of specific tax benefits. They were excluded from previous BPE and related ONS publications between 2004 and 2017. The exclusion was applied at the postcode level. Since 2018, these postcodes have been included in the data, as there is no evidence to support their continued exclusion

• BIST welcomes user feedback; refer to the user engagement section. Developments since the 2012 assessment are outlined above. Future development plans are closely linked to the development of a new Statistical Business Register (SBR), under development by the ONS. An update on the Statistical Business Register is included in the ONS Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics. The SBR could make use of new data sources, such as Corporation Tax and Self-Assessment data. Currently the BPE uses a combination of ONS Labour Force Survey and HMRC data to estimate the unregistered business population. This process could potentially be replaced with the SBR administrative data source, post validation and comparison.  Further work will be undertaken investigating both the rationale and feasibility of adding data on unregistered companies to the publication, while the assumption that no unregistered companies are active businesses will be reviewed

Pre-release access to statistics

Principle T3 of the Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics requires that access to official statistics before their public release is limited to certain individuals. This includes those involved in the production of the statistics and the preparation of the release, and those involved for quality assurance and operational purposes. Pre-release access may only be granted in accordance with the rules and principles set out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008. In addition, the order requires that records are published of those who have access prior to public release.

The role holders who received pre-release access to Business Population Estimates 2026 were:

• BIST Secretary of State

• BIST Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Small Business and Enterprise)

• BIST Special Advisers

• BIST Permanent Secretary

• BIST Director of Analysis

• BIST SME Strategy Analyst

• BIST Press Officer x2

• ONS Analysts x4

• Welsh Government: Head of Economy and Transport Statistics

Contact

• responsible statistician: Yaxsaana Sivanathan

• email: business.statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk

• media enquiries: 020 7215 2000

• public enquiries: 07741 700122

Legal disclaimer

Whereas every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade does not accept liability for any errors, omissions or misleading statements, and no warranty is given or responsibility accepted as to the standing of any individual, firm, company or other organisation mentioned.

© Crown copyright 2026

You may re-use this publication (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information in the material that you wish to use, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holder(s) concerned.