Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Business enterprises in the UK - Statistics & Facts
Approximately 5.5 million private businesses, were in operation in the United Kingdom in 2024, over two million more than there were in the year 2000, but almost half a million fewer than in 2020. Taken as whole, the private sector employs around 27.3 million people and had a combined turnover of over 5.27 trillion British pounds. London was the UK region with the largest number of businesses, at 982,905, and was also the city with the highest start-up rate, at 92.8 start-ups per 10,000 population in 2021. Among UK-based companies, Shell had, by some distance, the highest revenue at 289.7 billion US dollars, with BP and HSBC Holdings having the second and third-highest revenues respectively. In the same year, Compass Group employed an estimated 500,000 people worldwide, the highest among UK-based business enterprises.
Large companies and SMEs
Although there are only around 1,900 large companies, that employ 1,000 or more people, in the UK, these particular companies are responsible for a huge share of employment and turnover. Out of the 27 million private sector employees, just under 8.2 million are employed by these large companies, and taken together, these companies also had a turnover of over 1.69 trillion British pounds. Nevertheless, there are certainly far more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK than there are large ones, with SMEs numbering around 5.49 million in 2024. In the same year, UK SMEs employed over 16.6 million people and had a turnover of 2.75 trillion British pounds.The business environment
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has struggled to achieve sustained economic growth. While the labor market has generally remained robust, a period of high inflation, which reached a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, resulted in sharp interest rate hikes from the Bank of England. Even though inflation returned to more usual levels by 2024, there remains a high degree of uncertainty in the British economy. Business investment levels have not yet exceeded pre-pandemic levels, while the business confidence index has been steadily falling since the start of 2022. Company insolvencies have also increased quite substantially with approximately 25,000 taking place in England and Wales in 2023, compared with 22,000 in 2022, and 14,000 in 2021.
