Business enterprises in the UK - Statistics & Facts

Approximately 5.55 million private businesses, are currently in operation in the United Kingdom around two million more than there were at the turn of the century when there were 3.47 million. Taken as whole, the private sector employs around 27 million people and had a combined turnover of over 4.48 trillion British pounds. London was the UK region with the highest number of businesses, at more than one million, 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 261.76 billion US dollars, with BP and Tesco having the second and third-highest revenues respectively.

Large companies and SMEs

Although there are only around 3,900 large companies, that employ 500 or more people, in the UK, these particular companies are responsible for a huge share of employment and turnover. Out of 27 million private sector employees, just over nine million are employed by large companies, and taken together, these companies also had a turnover of over 1.82 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 5.55 million in 2023. In the same year, UK SMEs employed over 16.7 million people and had a turnover of 2.4 trillion British pounds.

The business environment

The economic climate since 2020 has been dominated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which first came to UK shores at the end of January, 2020. In response to the public health crisis which engulfed the UK in the spring, a major lockdown was enforced, resulting in the economy grinding to a halt. The UK's gross domestic product fell by almost 20 percent in April 2020, with the business confidence index (BCI) also sharply falling in response. Although the affect on the labor market was expected to be significant, the government mitigated this damage by furloughing jobs under the job retention scheme. Nevertheless, there is still a high degree of uncertainty in the British economy, which as of the second quarter of 2023 had a GDP growth rate of just 0.2 percent. High inflation, which reached a peak of 11.1 percent in October 2022, has resulted in sharp interest rate hikes from the Bank of England. Due to these factors business investment, which has been depressed since 2016, may remain low going into 2024.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by D. Clark, Oct 13, 2023

Key insights

Number of private enterprises in the UK
5.56m
Number of people employed in the UK private sector
27m
Private sector turnover in the UK
4.48 tr GBP
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Business confidence Index of the United Kingdom from March 1977 to October 2023 (100 = long-term average)

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Business confidence Index in the UK 1977-2023

Number of private sector businesses in the United Kingdom in 2023, by employment size

Business Enterprise

Number of businesses by enterprise size in the UK 2023

Largest companies in the United Kingdom based on revenue in 2022 (in billion US dollars)

Business Enterprise

Largest companies in the United Kingdom based on revenue 2022

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