UK business; activity, size and location: 2024

• The number of businesses in the UK registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay as You Earn (PAYE), as of March 2024, was 2.72 million, a decrease of 0.1% from March 2023.

• The number of companies continued to rise and they now represent 75.6% of total UK businesses, while the proportion of sole proprietors has decreased to 14.6% and that of partnerships has decreased to 6.1%.

• The number of transport and storage businesses grew strongly in 2020 and 2021 but has decreased since, down 9.1% in 2024.

• The largest industry group is professional, scientific, and technical, making up 15.3% of all registered businesses in the UK; this is up 0.1 percentage points from March last year.

The number of VAT and/or PAYE businesses in the UK as of March 2024 was 2.725 million, a decrease of 0.1% from March 2023. Through the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the business population remained fairly steady, and this has broadly continued. By contrast, gross domestic product (GDP) decreased sharply, year-on-year, into the first quarter of 2021, then rose sharply into the first quarter of 2022. GDP is showing a small increase year-on-year in the first quarters of both 2023 and 2024, resulting in movements in GDP and the number of businesses on IDBR getting closer to one another again. GDP has shown two small rises while IDBR has shown two small falls. Overall, the growth in the business population has slowed since 2018 compared with the 2012 to 2018 time period.

Between March 2023 and March 2024, the number of companies increased by 0.9%. Sole proprietors decreased by 4.0%, with the largest decrease coming from the transport and storage industry where unlicensed carriers decreased by 12.6% when compared with 2023.

The large increase in central government has been caused by the reclassification into central government of Further Education Corporations (FECs) in England from non-profit bodies. See our UK business; activity, size and location Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report for more information.

Table 2 shows the share of the total number of businesses by legal status. The proportion of companies has continued to rise and represents 75.6% of total UK businesses.

Of the 2.06 million companies, 44.0% are single-employee limited companies. The largest number of these businesses is in the professional, scientific, and technical industry, which carry out management consultancy activities.

The biggest drop in this category was in transport and storage where over a third of businesses are single-employee limited companies. This was mainly seen in freight transport by road, where the number of single-employee limited companies in that industry decreased by 14% compared with 2023.

The professional, scientific, and technical industry accounted for the largest number of businesses, with 15.3% of all registered businesses in the UK. The number of businesses in this industry has increased for the first time since 2020. It has been the largest broad industry group since 2013.

The strong growth in the transport and storage industry in 2021 has been replaced by decreases since 2022 with a further decrease in the number of businesses in 2024 of 9.1%. Within transport and storage, freight transport by road (down 15.5%), and unlicensed carriers (down 10.4%) showed the biggest decrease. In 2024, the health industry exhibited the highest percentage growth rate at 4.3%. Other human health activities contributed the most to this increase, with a growth of 8.5%, which accounted for 2,000 businesses.

Despite most regions showing a decrease in the number of businesses, four out of the twelve regions in the UK showed an increase in the number of businesses between 2023 and 2024.

The biggest percentage increase in the number of businesses between 2023 and 2024 was in Northern Ireland, which increased by 1.0% (760 businesses). Over a third of these businesses were in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry.

Wales saw the biggest percentage decrease, of 1.8% (1,945 businesses). The largest contributor to the decrease in Wales was the transport and storage industry, which was down by 21%. The number of businesses in this industry has been volatile in most regions. Most of the businesses that have come and gone over recent years have been either sole proprietors or one-person limited companies.

Please note that, for various reasons, multiple business registrations can be recorded at a single address, and this can distort data for smaller geographical areas. See our Multiple business registrations at a single postcode methodology for more information.

For three consecutive years, the number of sites has decreased (down by 0.1% in 2024). Out of the 2.725 million Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) businesses, only 58,050 operate from more than one site. Out of these businesses, the industry with the biggest decrease in sites is the retail sector with a drop of 1,355 sites. This decrease mainly came from businesses with 20 or more sites.

Business

For this release, the term "business" is used to represent an enterprise.

Company

Companies are businesses that are legally separate entities from the owners. These owners have limited liability, meaning they are not wholly responsible for losses and debts.

Enterprise

An enterprise is an organisational unit producing goods or services which has a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making.

IDBR

The Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) is a comprehensive list of UK businesses used by government for statistical purposes. The IDBR provides the main sampling frame for surveys of businesses carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other government departments. It is also an important data source for analyses of business activities.

The two main sources of input are Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay as You Earn (PAYE) records from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Additional information comes from Companies House, Dun and Bradstreet, and ONS business surveys.

Local Unit

A local unit is an individual site (for example a factory or shop) within an enterprise.

Partnerships

A business run by two or more self-employed people.

Public corporations

A public corporation is a market body which is controlled by central government, local government, or other public corporations and which has substantial day-to-day operating independence so that it is seen as an institutional unit separate from its parent departments.

Sole proprietors

A business run by one self-employed person.

Measuring the data

Our UK business: activity, size and location Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report contains important information on:

• the strengths and limitations of the data and how it compares with related data
• quality characteristics
• users and uses of the data
• how the output was created
• accessibility and characteristics

Strengths and limitations

The figures for this release are produced from an extract taken from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), recording the position of businesses on 8 March 2024, in line with the same timing of all previous releases of this publication.

This publication represents the businesses registered with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE). The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) produces Business population estimates which seek to provide full coverage of all types of businesses in the UK, including an estimate of the unregistered business population.

Since IDBR snapshots for this release are taken in March, the appropriate gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for Figure 2 is the year to Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar). However, the trends are similar with calendar year growth rates for GDP too.

Numerous breaks in the methodology of the IDBR exist over time. It is not possible to calculate a growth rate in the IDBR for 1996 because the IDBR was created in 1995.

Please note the figures in the statistical bulletin tables use disclosure methods and are rounded individually. Therefore, the sum of component items may be slightly different to the totals shown.