Number of self-employed workers in the UK 1992-2021

There were approximately 4.33 million self-employed people in the United Kingdom in the three months to March 2021. During this provided time-period, self-employment in the UK has grown steadily, from a low of just 3.2 million December 2000, to a peak of over 5.03 million at the start of 2020. In the wake of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however, self-employment has fallen to levels not seen since the middle of 2015.

Demographics of the self-employed

Between May 1992 and January 2021, there has consistently been more males self-employed than females, with the most recent figures showing that over 2.8 million men, and 1.5 million were self-employed. During the same time period, the most numerous self-employed age group was those aged between 45 and 54 years old, reaching just over 1.3 million individuals, indicating that middle aged people have the highest self-employment rates. As of the third quarter of 2020, around 821 thousand self-employed workers in the UK were based in the London region, with a further 707 thousand based in South East England.

Self-employment support scheme

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the UK government unveiled a variety of measures to mitigate the economic costs to businesses and individuals. For self-employed workers, this manifested itself as the Self-Employment Income-Support Scheme, which was in its third iteration, or tranche, by December 2020. During the first tranche, which ran from March to July there were 2.7 million claims made overall, with claims to the second and third tranches numbering 2.4 million and 1.7 million respectively. As of December 13, 2020, the overall value of these claims amounted to 14.5 billion British pounds.