UK business births and deaths
Retail: three years of net closures, then growth again in 2025.
Source: ONS, Business demography, quarterly, UK, July to September 2026 edition (published 29 October 2026). Counts are enterprises, rounded to the nearest 5; recent quarters are revised in later editions. 2026 covers the first three quarters. Chart by 365 Finance.
Business births and deaths by region
2025: more births than deaths in 8 of 12 regions and countries. Largest net gain: London (+8,480). Largest net loss: South West (-360).
Net change (births minus deaths), 2025
London, 2025
Select a region to see its births and deaths over time.
London: births and deaths over time
Source: ONS, Business demography, quarterly, UK, July to September 2026 edition (published 29 October 2026). Quarterly series, all industries, by region and country. Counts are enterprises, rounded to the nearest 5; recent quarters are revised in later editions. ‘2026 to date’ covers the first three quarters of 2026; ‘By year’ shows full years only. Chart by 365 Finance.
Active businesses in 2024 against 2019, by region
Eight of the twelve UK regions and countries had fewer active businesses in 2024 than in 2019.
Source: ONS Business demography, UK: 2024 (published 20 November 2025), annual series. Counts are active enterprises, rounded to the nearest 5; an enterprise counts as active if it had turnover or employment at any point in the year. Chart by 365 Finance.
Births and deaths by type of business
Retail in 2024: supermarkets and general stores had the largest net gain and household equipment shops the largest net loss.
All retail: 27,380 births, 26,100 deaths, net +1,280
Source: ONS Business demography, UK: 2024 (published 20 November 2025), annual series. Counts are enterprises, rounded to the nearest 5. Net is births minus deaths. Rows are SIC 2007 three-digit groups, with names shortened from the ONS titles. ‘All hospitality’ is accommodation (SIC 55) plus food and beverage service (SIC 56). The annual tables are a different ONS product from the quarterly series, so their totals differ. Chart by 365 Finance.
Net renewal rate: new businesses minus closures per 100 active businesses, 2024
Renewal rate = (births minus deaths) divided by active enterprises, times 100, all from the ONS annual series for 2024.
A rate of +1.00 means one more business opened than closed in 2024 for every 100 active businesses.
Source: ONS Business demography, UK: 2024 (published 20 November 2025), annual series. Counts are enterprises, rounded to the nearest 5. Types of business are SIC 2007 groups within retail (47) and accommodation and food services (55 and 56). Chart by 365 Finance.
Where businesses opened and closed, by council area
One hexagon for each of the 361 UK council areas, coloured by the net change in businesses per 100 active businesses. Hover or tap for the figures; click a council to see its detail.
Latest available: ONS publishes council-area counts once a year, and this is the newest release, for 2024 (published 20 November 2025). ONS has scheduled the 2025 figures for 19 November 2026.
Click a hexagon for a council’s figures.
Source: ONS, Business demography, UK: 2024 (published 20 November 2025), Tables 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1, all industries, council areas as at 2024. Counts are enterprises rounded to multiples of 5 (ONS controlled rounding); closures for 2023 and 2024 are provisional. Councils created after 2019 use the ONS totals for the areas they replaced. Hexagon layout: Open Innovations, UK local authority districts 2023, CC BY 4.0. Chart by 365 Finance.
Opened and closed in your area
Business openings, closures and the net change for every council area in the UK, 2019 to 2024, set against the region and the UK. Type a town, city or council area.
Why the figures stop at 2024: ONS publishes council-area counts once a year, and the latest release covers 2024; ONS has scheduled the 2025 figures for 19 November 2026. The quarterly series behind the other charts runs to September 2026 but only goes down to the 12 regions and countries, so each result shows the newest figure for its region as well.
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Openings and closures by year
Net change per 100 businesses, 2024
Source: ONS, Business demography, UK: 2024 (published 20 November 2025), Tables 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1, all industries. ONS calls openings ‘births’ and closures ‘deaths’. Counts are enterprises, rounded to multiples of 5 (ONS controlled rounding); closures for 2023 and 2024 include an ONS adjustment for reactivations and are provisional. Rates are per 100 active enterprises in the same year. Council areas are as at 2024; where a council was created after 2019, earlier years are the ONS totals for the areas it replaced. Council-area counts come only from this annual release; the 2025 edition is scheduled for 19 November 2026. The newer regional figures quoted under each result are from the ONS quarterly series (July to September 2026 edition, published 29 October 2026), which is compiled differently and stops at region level. Chart by 365 Finance.
About this data. The charts use two ONS products. The quarterly series (Business demography, quarterly, UK, July to September 2026 edition, published 29 October 2026) gives business births and deaths by sector and by region up to the third quarter of 2026; the most recent quarters are revised in later editions, deaths especially. The annual series (Business demography, UK: 2024, published 20 November 2025) gives births, deaths and active enterprises by detailed type of business, by region and by council area to the end of 2024; the area lookup uses its Tables 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1. The two series are compiled differently and do not reconcile, so each chart states which one it uses. All counts are enterprises, not premises, rounded to the nearest 5.