Every UK region is growing its business count — some barely
ONS publishes a birth rate and a death rate for all twelve UK regions. Subtract one from the other and the spread is eight-fold: London adds businesses eight times faster than the East Midlands.
- Period
- Business demography 2024
- Published
- August 10, 2026
- Built with
- Databoat
2.40%
of net business formation — every other region trails it
London
- East Midlands0.30%
- Wales0.50%
- South West0.50%
- South East0.90%
- East of England1.10%
- Yorkshire1.10%
- West Midlands1.20%
- Scotland1.30%
- North West1.40%
- North East1.50%
- Northern Ireland2.20%
- London2.40%
- London10.30%→12.70%
- Northern Ireland7.30%→9.50%
- North East10.30%→11.80%
- North West10.50%→11.90%
- Scotland9.40%→10.70%
- West Midlands10.60%→11.80%
- Yorkshire10.20%→11.30%
- East of England9.30%→10.40%
- South East9.10%→10.00%
- Wales9.60%→10.10%
- South West9.10%→9.60%
- East Midlands10.30%→10.60%
The bar is net formation. Every region sits on the growing side of zero, but the West Midlands and East Midlands only just.
Hover a point
Birth rate against death rate. Distance from the diagonal is how fast a region is adding businesses.
| Births | Deaths | Net | Churn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 12.70% | 10.30% | 2.40% | 23.00% |
| North West | 11.90% | 10.50% | 1.40% | 22.40% |
| North East | 11.80% | 10.30% | 1.50% | 22.10% |
| West Midlands | 11.80% | 10.60% | 1.20% | 22.40% |
| Yorkshire | 11.30% | 10.20% | 1.10% | 21.50% |
| Scotland | 10.70% | 9.40% | 1.30% | 20.10% |
| East Midlands | 10.60% | 10.30% | 0.30% | 20.90% |
| East of England | 10.40% | 9.30% | 1.10% | 19.70% |
| Wales | 10.10% | 9.60% | 0.50% | 19.70% |
| South East | 10.00% | 9.10% | 0.90% | 19.10% |
| South West | 9.60% | 9.10% | 0.50% | 18.70% |
| Northern Ireland | 9.50% | 7.30% | 2.20% | 16.80% |
Teal is low, amber is high. Northern Ireland is the quietest column on every measure at once.
Every region as a spoke, length by how much of its business population turned over in a single year.
Area is the share of each region that simply carried on. Four in five, everywhere — the churn is the exception.
Method
ONS publishes a birth rate and a death rate for all twelve UK regions and countries. Databoat read those two columns and derived four more — net formation, total churn, births per death, and the share that neither opened nor closed. Every view above comes from the result. The table and the formulas it added are at the foot of this page, and every chart downloads as a PNG.
Rates are against the active business population of VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses, so the smallest unregistered sole traders sit outside them. The UK five-year survival rate for the 2019 cohort was 38.4%, but ONS publishes that figure per region for only the highest and lowest, so it is not modelled here.
ONS — Business demography, UK: 2024
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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