Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions in 2015

There were a record 5.4 million private sector businesses a the start of 2015.
This is an increase of 146,000 since 2014 and 1.9 million more since 2000.
The number of employing businesses increased by 35,000 and the number of non-employing businesses by 112,000, with the annual growth for both groups being around +3%.

Small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2015 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs).
Total employment in SMEs was 15.6 million; 60% of all private sector employment in the UK.
The combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.8 trillion, 47% of all private sector turnover in the UK.

In 2015, there were 1.3 million employing businesses and 4.1 million non-employing businesses. Therefore, 76% of businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owner.
The overall business population includes three main legal forms: there were 3.3 million sole proprietorships (62% of the total), 1.6 million companies (30%), and 436,000 ordinary partnerships (8%).
There were 2.4 million businesses registered for VAT or PAYE, 44% of the total population. A further 3.0 million are not registered for either VAT or PAYE.

There has been sustained growth in the total business population, with increases of +55% since 2000 and +3% since 2014.
The majority of population growth since 2000 has been due to non-employing businesses, which accounted for 90% of the 1.9m increase.
The growth in numbers of businesses last year reflected the composition of the business population in 2014, with non-employing businesses accounting for three quarters of the overall 146,000 increase.
The number of companies has increased in recent years and increased again in the last year by 117,000 (+8%). In contrast, the number of ordinary partnerships continued to fall, with a 21,000 (-5%) reduction from 2014. The number of sole proprietorships increased by 50,000 (+2%).

The business population in southern England is larger relative to resident population than elsewhere in the UK.
SMEs account for at least 99% of the businesses in every main industry sector.
Just under a fifth of all SMEs operate in Construction, compared to just 1% in the Mining, Quarrying and Utilities sector.