Business statistics for the UK and Northern Ireland

In 2024, the UK recorded 317,000 business launches against 280,000 closures. That’s an 11.1% birth rate and the lowest death rate the market has seen since 2016. Northern Ireland mirrored this positive momentum, counting 82,680 registered businesses in March 2026, marking 12 consecutive years of growth. Local Belfast agency ProfileTree shares key takeaways from the figures for small firms.

Every figure below comes from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) or the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), the two official sources for counts of businesses. For the full breakdown of UK firms by size, employment and turnover, the UK small business statistics guide on ProfileTree covers the wider picture, and this page concentrates on how many businesses are starting, closing and growing.

The latest business growth figures at a glance

More UK businesses opened than closed in both 2023 and 2024, and the margin widened in the second year. ONS counts a business birth when a firm first appears on the register of businesses that pay VAT or operate PAYE (the payroll scheme for employees), and a death when it stops trading. Most sole traders whose turnover is below £90,000, the level at which VAT registration becomes compulsory, are therefore not in these counts.

The table mixes annual and quarterly measures because the two series move at different speeds. The annual ONS release is the accredited figure and the one to quote in a business plan. The quarterly series, which ONS still labels as official statistics in development, shows the direction of travel between annual releases.

These figures matter most when they change a decision, such as where to sell, when to hire or how much to put into marketing. Owners who want help building those decisions into a plan can see how ProfileTree runs its digital marketing Belfast engagements. The sections below take each figure in turn.

New business data for the UK

More firms are starting than closing across the UK, but the margin is narrow and some of the closure figures are still provisional.

Business births and closures

ONS recorded 317,000 business births in 2024, up from 316,000 in 2023, which lifted the birth rate (births as a share of all active businesses) from 11.0% to 11.1%. Closures fell from 310,000 to 280,000, and the death rate dropped from 10.8% to 9.8%. According to the ONS business demography release for 2024, the gap between the two rates widened from 0.2 to 1.3 percentage points.

Two caveats apply before anyone builds a forecast on these numbers. The closure counts for 2023 and 2024 are provisional and may be revised. ONS also estimates that the number of active businesses fell by around 11,000, to about 2.9 million, over the same year.

The quarterly series gives a more recent view. Between April and June 2026, the ONS quarterly business demography series counted 79,325 business creations, 2.2% more than in the same quarter of 2025, against 76,840 closures, up 2.0%. Creations exceeded closures by roughly 2,500 in the quarter. Both counts had already been reduced by ONS to allow for false starts and for businesses that reactivate after closing.

Where new businesses are being formed

London has the highest birth rate of any UK region, at 12.7% in 2024, with around 76,000 new businesses. Northern Ireland has the lowest, at 9.5%, with around 6,000. It also has the lowest death rate, at 7.3%, so fewer firms start in Northern Ireland and fewer close, and the business base turns over more slowly than in Great Britain.

The register of active firms follows the same pattern. In March 2026, London held 19.8% of the UK’s 2.79 million registered businesses and the South East held 14.8%, while Northern Ireland held 2.9%. A Northern Ireland firm selling into Great Britain is therefore entering markets where far more businesses compete for each customer.

Which sectors are adding businesses

Professional, scientific and technical services form the largest industry group on the UK register, at 15.3% of businesses in March 2026. Wholesale and retail, including the motor trades, follows at 14.4%, with construction at 14.1%. In the April to June 2026 quarter, creations rose in nine of the 16 main industry groups, led by business administration and support services with a rise of 12.3%. Closures rose in 11 groups, with the sharpest increase in agriculture, forestry and fishing, at 28.4%.

Northern Ireland business statistics

Northern Ireland has added businesses every year for twelve years, and nearly nine in ten of them employ fewer than 10 people.

How many businesses operate in Northern Ireland

The NISRA Inter-Departmental Business Register counted 82,680 registered businesses in Northern Ireland in March 2026. That is an increase of 1,545, or 1.9%, on the year. It is the twelfth consecutive year of growth, after the number fell between 2008 and 2014, and like the UK figures the count leaves out most sole traders without a payroll.

Business demography for Northern Ireland, which tracks firms as they start and close, tells a similar story. There were 6,240 business births in 2024, up 16.2% on 2023, and 4,790 closures, down 3.6%. The birth rate rose to 9.5%, its first increase since 2021, although it remains the lowest in the UK.

Size and turnover of Northern Ireland firms

Micro businesses, those with fewer than 10 employees, made up 89.4% of the Northern Ireland register in March 2026. The table sets out the size and turnover split that NISRA reports.

All four headline industries grew over the year. Construction added 975 businesses, a rise of 2.7%, to reach 11,785, its highest level since the series began in 2010, and services also added 975. Agriculture grew for a fifth consecutive year, up 215, while production rose by 35. The 2,325 businesses owned outside Northern Ireland make up only 2.8% of the register, yet they employ 24.3% of all employees.

Belfast and the other council areas

Belfast remains the largest council area, with 12,100 registered businesses in March 2026, or 14.6% of the total, and it had the largest increase in numbers, at 285. Antrim and Newtownabbey has the fewest, with 4,435 businesses, or 5.4%. All 11 council areas grew, with Ards and North Down growing fastest at 2.9% and Derry City and Strabane slowest at 0.3%.

The 2024 demography figures show a different pattern in the north west. Derry City and Strabane had the highest business birth rate in Northern Ireland, at 15.1%, and also the highest death rate, at 9.9%, which points to a business base that turns over quickly. Mid Ulster had the lowest birth rate, at 6.8%, and Fermanagh and Omagh had the lowest death rate, at 5.2%.

How many new businesses survive and grow

Just under two in five UK businesses reach their fifth year. Of the businesses born in the UK in 2019, 38.4% were still trading five years later, according to ONS. Survival varies widely by region, from 43.5% in the South West to 30.6% in the West Midlands, so a national average says little about the odds in any one place.

High growth is rarer still. ONS counted 14,330 high-growth businesses in 2024, measured by how fast their employment grew, which gives a high-growth rate of 4.9%. Northern Ireland had 275 such firms, and its rate of 3.5% was the lowest of any UK region. ProfileTree’s article on small business failure rates in the UK looks at why firms close and what the survival figures mean for a new owner.

What the growth data means for a small firm’s digital plans

In ProfileTree’s view, the Northern Ireland figures argue for building online visibility steadily. Competitors close less often here than elsewhere in the UK, and most of the firms that stay are very small. With nine in ten businesses employing fewer than 10 people, few have anyone whose main job is marketing, so the website, the search listing and the social channels are often maintained by the owner in spare hours. ProfileTree recommends giving that work a fixed slot each week and judging it by the enquiries it brings in.

A low death rate has two effects. Rivals rarely disappear and leave their customers behind, so a firm gains share by being easier to find and easier to choose, and that position takes months of consistent work to build. The low birth rate also means fewer new entrants, which favours the businesses that build their online presence before the next competitor arrives.

For firms selling across the border or into Great Britain, the register also shows how crowded those markets are. London alone holds almost seven times as many registered businesses as Northern Ireland.

“Northern Ireland businesses sell into two markets with two currencies and two sets of rules, and most of their websites only talk to one,” says Ciaran Connolly, founder of ProfileTree. “Deciding which customer the page is for is half the job, and it is the first question ProfileTree asks about any digital marketing brief in Belfast.”

For teams that want to handle more of this work themselves, structured training is often the quicker route for a micro business. ProfileTree runs digital training for business teams built around each firm’s own website and search terms, so staff leave with the changes already made.

Turning the data into a growth plan with ProfileTree

ProfileTree is a Belfast web design and digital marketing agency, founded in 2011 and based at the McSweeney Centre. The team works with SMEs and public bodies across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain on websites, SEO, content, video and training, and has more than 500 Google reviews with a 5.0 rating.

The practical next step is to compare your own business with the figures for your council area and sector, then decide which market your website and search presence should serve first. Businesses outside Belfast can see how the team plans digital marketing for firms across Northern Ireland. That work runs from a review of the current site and search listings to an ongoing plan, with pricing quoted on request.

Business growth data questions answered