UK Business: Activity, Size and Location 2025

Product Description

UK businesses broken down by legal status, industry, region, employment and turnover size bands.

Main points

• There were 2.73 million Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) businesses in the UK as of March 2025, an increase of 0.4% from March 2024.
• The number of companies and public corporations continued to rise, representing 76.7% of total UK businesses, while the proportion of sole proprietors and partnerships fell to 19.8%.
• The largest industry group is still professional, scientific, and technical, making up 15.3% of all registered businesses in the UK.
• There were 3.2 million sites (local units) in the UK as of March 2025, an increase of 0.2% from 2024; this is the first increase in the number of sites since 2021.