Tuesday, 31 May 2011

An Increase In The Number Of UK Businesses

The estimated number of private sector business in the UK at the start of 2010 increased by 48,000 to 4.5m according to statistics from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. They employed an estimated 22.5m people and had a combined annual turnover of £3,200bn. SMEs accounted for 99.9% of all enterprises, 59.1% of private sector employment and 48.6% of turnover. Two thirds, 64.2%, of private sector businesses were sole proprietorships, 27.6% were companies and 8.2% were partnerships.

The largest sector in terms of numbers of enterprises was construction with 899,000 businesses, professional, scientific and technical came next with 602,000. There were 146,000 enterprises in agriculture, forestry and fishing, 498,000 in wholesale, retail trade, repair and 291,000 in human health and social work activities.

The South East had the most private sector enterprises with 732,000, followed by London with 706,000. The East of England came third with 474,000. The North East had the least number of enterprises with 122,000. Next bottom was the East Midlands with 306,000. Scotland had 288,000, Wales 192,000 and N. Ireland 121,000.

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