UK Business: Activity, Size and Location 2024

Product Description

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

Main points

• 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.