UK trade in goods by business characteristics 2021
Updated 18 April 2023
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-trade-in-goods-by-business-characteristics-2021/uk-trade-in-goods-by-business-characteristics-2021
Currently these statistics are labelled as experimental. For more information on this and on other important features of this publication, please see the guidance notes.
Introduction
HMRC has linked the Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS) with business statistics from the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR).
This release details the attributes of businesses (enterprises) that have trade in goods, broken down by industry group, size of business (number of employees) and age of business, with focus on changes in trade value, business counts, and employee counts between 2020 and 2021.
For more detailed information for 2021, users can download Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.
All data presented has been compiled on a Special Trade basis. For further information, please see the Methodology Paper for Overseas Trade Statistics. Some previous releases of UK Trade in Goods by Business Characteristics (2013/2014/2015) were compiled on a General Trade basis and have not been updated.
Since the last release for 2020 data, data source changes have impacted the methodology for producing these statistics.
The change for UK exports to the EU, is that GB to EU trade data is now sourced from Customs declarations, whilst NI exports to the EU is collected through the Intrastat Survey. This has caused a timeseries break from January 2021. Please note this change when making comparisons to previous years.
The change for UK imports from the EU, is that VAT returns now only capture NI imports from the EU. Previously, VAT returns covered all UK trade. As such, trade values for all importing traders below the Intrastat threshold are now unavailable. The Intrastat Survey remains the data source for UK imports from the EU for both NI and GB traders that are above the Intrastat threshold.
This change means that it is not possible to accurately produce business characteristics for UK imports from the EU for 2021, so this has been excluded from this publication.
COVID-19: Some businesses stopped trading for a period of time which is reflected in these trade statistics.
Summary statistics
Total exports of goods in 2021
£342bn up £34.6 billion (11%) on 2020
Total exporting businesses (enterprises) contributing to the total exports of goods value in 2021
127k down 22k (15%) on 2020
Total employees in these exporting businesses in 2021
10.5m up 898k (9.3%) on 2020
Total Non-EU Imports of goods in 2021
£282bn up £17.9 billion (6.8%) on 2020
Total Non-EU importing businesses (enterprises) contributing to the total Non-EU imports of goods value in 2021
150k up 14k (10%) on 2020
Total employees in these Non-EU importing businesses in 2021
10.0m down 48k (0.5%) on 2020
Trade by Industry Group
Table 1. Percentage change in UK export trade value between 2020 and 2021, by industry group
| Industry Group | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| Group 1 - Agriculture & Food | 8 |
| Group 2 - Mining, Petroleum products & Waste | 69 |
| Group 3 - Chemicals | 13 |
| Group 4 - Pharmaceuticals | 3 |
| Group 5 - Electronic & Electrical equipment | 15 |
| Group 6 - Machinery & equipment n.e.s. | 17 |
| Group 7 - Motor vehicles, transport equipment | 3 |
| Group 8 - Aerospace and related machinery | -8 |
| Group 9 - Other manufacturing | 15 |
| Group 10 - Services | 3 |
Sources:
HM Revenue & Customs Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics
Office for National Statistics Inter-Departmental Business Register data
Notes:
Group 10 – Services data relates to trade in goods made by businesses classified within the Services industry, but not the services they provide.
There was a data source change for GB-EU exports from January 2021.
- The increase in the total value of exports between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by exports of Industry Group 2 – Mining, Petroleum products & Waste, up to £25.7bn from £15.2bn.
- The decrease in the total number of exporting businesses between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by a 23% decrease seen in Industry Group 10 - Services.
- The increase in the total number of employees in exporting businesses between 2020 and 2021 was driven by increases in Industry Group 2 – Mining, Petroleum products & Waste, and Industry Group 10 – Services, up 10% and 11% respectively.
Table 2. Percentage change in UK Non-EU import trade value between 2020 and 2021, by industry group
| Industry Group | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| Group 1 - Agriculture & Food | 21 |
| Group 2 - Mining, Petroleum products & Waste | 100 |
| Group 3 - Chemicals | 25 |
| Group 4 - Pharmaceuticals | 17 |
| Group 5 - Electronic & Electrical equipment | 20 |
| Group 6 - Machinery & equipment n.e.s. | 23 |
| Group 7 - Motor vehicles, transport equipment | -1 |
| Group 8 - Aerospace and related machinery | -25 |
| Group 9 - Other manufacturing | 29 |
| Group 10 - Services | -3 |
Sources:
HM Revenue & Customs Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics
Office for National Statistics Inter-Departmental Business Register data
Notes:
Group 10 – Services data relates to trade in goods made by businesses classified within the Services industry, but not the services they provide.
- The increase in the total value of Non-EU imports between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by Non-EU imports of Industry Group 2 – Mining, Petroleum products & Waste, up to £34.4bn from £17.2bn.
- The increase in the total number of Non-EU importing businesses between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by a 16% increase seen in Industry Group 10 - Services.
- The decrease in the total number of employees in Non-EU importing businesses between 2020 and 2021 was driven by decreases in Industry Group 6 – Machinery and equipment n.e.s, and Industry Group 7 – Motor vehicles, transport equipment, down 3.9% and 9.1% respectively.
Trade by Business Size
Table 3. Percentage change in UK export trade value between 2020 and 2021, by business size
| Employee Size | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| 0 employees | -18 |
| 1 to 9 employees | -7 |
| 10 to 49 employees | 7 |
| 50 to 249 employees | 7 |
| 250 + employees | 16 |
Sources:
HM Revenue & Customs Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics
Office for National Statistics Inter-Departmental Business Register data
Notes:
There was a data source change for GB-EU exports from January 2021.
- The increase in the total value of exports between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by exports made by Large businesses (250+ employees), up to £193bn from £166bn.
- The decrease in the total number of exporting businesses between 2020 and 2021 was driven by decreases in exporting sole traders (0 employees) and exporting businesses with 1 to 9 employees, down 54% and 24% respectively.
- The increase in the total number of employees in exporting businesses between 2020 and 2021 was driven by increases of employees in Large businesses (250+ employees), up 11%.
Table 4. Percentage change in UK Non-EU import trade value between 2020 and 2021, by business size
| Employee Size | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| 0 employees | 5 |
| 1 to 9 employees | 22 |
| 10 to 49 employees | 25 |
| 50 to 249 employees | 19 |
| 250 + employees | -8 |
Sources:
HM Revenue & Customs Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics
Office for National Statistics Inter-Departmental Business Register data
- The increase in the total value of Non-EU imports between 2020 and 2021 was driven by increases in all sub-categories of SMEs (1 to 9, 10 to 49, and 50 to 249 employees). SMEs combined were up to £82.3bn from £67.6bn.
- The increase in the total number of Non-EU importing businesses between 2020 and 2021 was driven by increases seen in Non-EU importing businesses with 1 to 9, and with 10 to 49 employees, up 4.0% and 6.0% respectively.
- The decrease in the total number of employees in Non-EU importing businesses was driven by a 1.5% decrease in employees in Large businesses (250+ employees).
Trade by Business Age
Table 5. Percentage change in UK export trade value between 2020 and 2021, by business age
| Age | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| 0 to 1 years | 7 |
| 2 to 3 years | -38 |
| 4 to 5 years | -33 |
| 6 to 9 years | -21 |
| 10 to 20 years | 5 |
| 20 + years | 12 |
Sources:
HM Revenue & Customs Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics
Office for National Statistics Inter-Departmental Business Register data
Notes:
There was a data source change for GB-EU exports from January 2021.
- The increase in the total value of exports between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by businesses over 20 years of age, up to £253bn from £225bn.
Table 6. Percentage change in UK Non-EU import trade value between 2020 and 2021, by business age
| Age | Change (%) |
|---|---|
| 0 to 1 years | -26 |
| 2 to 3 years | 19 |
| 4 to 5 years | 0 |
| 6 to 9 years | -35 |
| 10 to 20 years | 70 |
| 20 + years | -3 |
Sources:
HM Revenue & Customs Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics
Office for National Statistics Inter-Departmental Business Register data
- The increase in the total value of Non-EU imports between 2020 and 2021 was largely driven by businesses in the 10 to 20 years of age category, up to £40.4bn from £23.8bn.