Number of private sector businesses in the UK 2000-2024

In 2024, there were approximately 5.5 million private businesses operating in the United Kingdom, a slight decrease when compared with the previous year, and down from a peak of 5.98 million businesses reported in 2020. There has been a net increase of around 2.03 million business enterprises since 2000, when there were 3.47 million. During the provided time period, the largest annual rise in the number of businesses occurred between 2013 and 2014, which saw a net increase of approximately 340,000 private enterprises. 

Employment in the UK

Of the almost 33 million people employed in the UK as of April 2024 around 27 million are employed in the private sector, highlighting their key role in the UK economy. Additionally, a significant share of the UK workforce are employed by the 3,900 large companies which employ over 500 people. As of 2023, large companies employed over nine million people, despite only composing a fraction of the total number of UK private enterprises. During the same time period, the UK public sector employed around 5.9 million people, approximately 17.9 percent of the workforce.

Retail and wholesale dominate

Over 4.9 million people were employed in retail and wholesale in the UK in 2023, the most of any sector. After the retail sector, administrative, and support service businesses were the next biggest employer, at just over three million people.Retail and wholesale enterprises were also responsible for the highest combined turnover of UK businesses, at almost 1.5 trillion British pounds. The sector with the most enterprises, was the construction sector with over 883,000 enterprises belonging to this industry in 2023.