Suffrago UK Data Hub
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Independent service run by Suffrago – not an official government website. Every figure comes from an official UK publisher under its open licence and is checked against that source each time the data is refreshed.

Private sector businesses, England's regions and the UK's nations

Official statistics in development

Private sector businesses in England's nine regions, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with England and the UK, at the start of the latest two years, from the Department for Business and Trade's business population estimates.

Private sector businesses, United Kingdom

5,586,800

2026

Verified against source, 10 November 2026, 11:41 UTC
Private sector businesses, England's regions and the UK's nations
  • 2026
  • 2025
0500k1.0m1.5mLondon1,006,8001,041,600South East864,200876,600East of England563,400578,800North West550,800508,800South West531,400562,400West Midlands435,900450,800Yorkshire and The Humber430,900408,400Scotland359,200361,100East Midlands356,300402,500Wales196,000194,200North East162,900166,500Northern Ireland129,000138,700

Source: Department for Business and Trade. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Data table

14 rows

Area20262025
London1,006,8001,041,600
South East864,200876,600
East of England563,400578,800
North West550,800508,800
South West531,400562,400
West Midlands435,900450,800
Yorkshire and The Humber430,900408,400
Scotland359,200361,100
East Midlands356,300402,500
Wales196,000194,200
North East162,900166,500
Northern Ireland129,000138,700
England4,902,6004,996,300
United Kingdom5,586,8005,690,300

Download CSVDownload JSON with full provenance

Source and licence

Publisher
Department for Business and Trade
Check it yourself
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-population-estimates
Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Retrieved
10 November 2026, 11:32 UTC
Raw files fetched

Verification

Verified against source, 10 November 2026, 11:41 UTC Run at 10 November 2026, 11:41 UTC; 28 of 28 figures matched the live source.

ResultCheckDetail
PassProvenance recordedDepartment for Business and Trade; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-10T11:32:12Z; 2 raw file(s)
PassRaw files match recorded SHA-2562 of 2 files intact
PassRe-parsing raw files reproduces figures28 of 28 figures and the headline reproduced
PassFigures are finite numbers28 figures, 0 invalid
PassLive source matches every figure28 of 28 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches
PassGOV.UK table is currentlatest period 2026-01-01 ended 313 days before retrieval (limit 760), from Business population estimates for the UK and regions 2026: detailed tables (MS Excel)
PassThe regions add up to Englandin 2 of 2 cases the nine regions, each rounded to 100, sum to the whole within 450 (1 exactly)
PassThe hub's businesses-by-nation agrees10 of 10 figures match businesses-by-nation's record (the same table's nations, read by that dataset)
PassSource page answershttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-population-estimates – HTTP 200

Notes

  • Every private sector business, from sole traders without employees to the largest employers, counted at the start of each year. The figures are rounded to the nearest 100, so the regions may not add up exactly to England. The chart leaves England and the UK to the table, since they would dwarf every region.
  • The Department for Business and Trade publishes these estimates as official statistics in development since 2024.