The distribution of businesses in the UK can be analysed by size, location, industry and legal status. Business location can be identified at twp levels; the location of individual sites (local units) and the location of the business (enterprise level), for example, in terms of its main operating site or head office.
Publications
This product includes births, deaths and survivals of UK enterprises. The active stock of businesses is also shown, so that birth and death rates can be calculated.
Hereditament, floor space and rateable value statistics for non-domestic property.
Numbers of VAT and PAYE registered businesses in Northern Ireland, by region, size and industry.
Overview
UK Business: Activity, Size and Location
Data are available at both enterprise and local unit level, and tables including industry data (down to SIC four digit) and geographical data down to parliamentary constituency. Only VAT and/or PAYE registered enterprises are included.
Small and Medium Enterprise statistics
This publication provides details on the size distribution of all businesses in the UK. Data are available by legal status, private/public/non-profit sectors, regions and industries. Regional data are based on the location of the enterprise. Subregional data are not available, as the data for the unregistered business population are based on sample data, which are not robust enough below regional level.
Business Demography
Enterprise birth, death and survivals. This dataset was introduced for the first time in 2008, and follows the methodology set out in the Eurostat/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Business Demography Manual. It includes births and deaths by industry, size band, and geography; based on the location of the enterprise.
VAT registrations and de-registrations
This is available for the last time in 2008. In future, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) business demography dataset will be the main source of business births and deaths. This dataset provides details of business starts and closures, stock and net change from 1994 to 2007, based on data from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). Data are available for the UK, regions, unitary/local authorities and parliamentary constituencies. Geographical data are based on the location of the enterprise.
Technical Data
UK Business: Activity Size and Location
The data contained in this publication are produced from a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken in March of each year. Introduced in 1994, the IDBR provides the basis for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to conduct surveys of businesses.
The main administrative sources for the IDBR are VAT trader and PAYE employer information passed to ONS by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) under the Value Added Tax Act 1994 for VAT traders and the Finance Act 1969 for PAYE employers. Details of incorporated businesses are also passed to ONS by Companies House.
The IDBR combines the information from the three administrative sources with some survey data in a statistical register comprising over two million enterprises. These comprehensive administrative sources, combined with the survey data, contribute to the coverage on the IDBR, which is one of its main strengths.
In 2008, the publication was enhanced to include enterprises based on PAYE employers that are not also registered for VAT, extending the scope from the previous VAT-based enterprise publication. This was a major improvement to the scope of the publication.
Regional analyses are provided for VAT and/or PAYE based enterprises and local units. Where an enterprise has several local units, the location of the enterprise is generally the main operating site or the head office. Tables B1.1, B1.2, B1.3, B1.4, B2.1 and B2.2 provide summaries of the location of enterprises, and tables A1.1, A1.2 and A2.1 provide similar data for local units. For Tables A6.1, A6.2, B6.1, B6.2 and B6.3, the data are presented by Parliamentary Constituency boundaries.
Small and Medium Enterprise statistics
This publication is based on a snapshot of data from the IDBR taken in March of each year, to obtain the number of enterprises live at the start of the year (for example, the March 2008 extract was used to obtain businesses live at the start of 2007).
Only enterprises registered for VAT and/or PAYE appear on the IDBR, so this publication estimates the number of small unregistered enterprises using other sources (the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the HMRC Survey of Personal Incomes). Details of the methodology can be found on the BERR website. Estimates for UK regions and countries are only produced in alternate years.
Business Demography
A joint Eurostat/OECD Manual on Business Demography has been produced, which defines and sets out the broad methodology that should be used to produce business demography data.
The starting point for demography is the concept of a population of active businesses in a reference year. These are defined as businesses that had either turnover or employment at any time during the reference period. Births and deaths are then identified by comparing active populations for different years.
VAT registrations and de-registrations
There is no requirement for all new businesses to notify the government when they start trading. Therefore, data available on VAT registration and de-registration are used as a proxy for business start-up and closure activity.
Less than half of the estimated business population in the UK is registered for VAT, so this publication does miss some start-up and closure activity that may occur below the VAT thresholds. However, it provides a useful guide to the trends over time in start-up and closure activity, and also provides detailed geographical and sectoral data.
Because of lags in some activity being notified to HMRC and appearing on the business register (IDBR), adjustments are made to the administrative data to take account of this. Because of the new Business Demography methodology, which is more inclusive in terms of identifying new births and deaths, the publication released on 28 November 2008 will be the last in this series.
Glossary
-
Enterprise
An enterprise is the smallest grouping of legal units (VAT or PAYE records) that have a degree of autonomy. In some cases an enterprise may be part of an enterprise group.
-
Local units
Local units are individual sites belonging to an enterprise. For example, these are offices, factories or shops operated by the enterprise.
Contact Details
For statistical enquiries about this topic, please contact:
Enterprise Statistics
Email: enterprise.statistics@berr.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 11 4279 4435
St Mary’s House 9-11 London Road Sheffield S2 4LA
