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These show the number of businesses, employment and turnover in all the businesses in the UK, not just those on official registers. Data are split by legal status; country; region; 1, 2 and 3 digit Standard Industrial Classification; and number of employees (0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-99, 100-199, 200-249, 250-499, 500+).
Data on the number of business births and deaths and stock of VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses in the UK is available from the ONS Statistics Website. Data are split by Industrial Sector, Local Authority, and Government Office Regions .
Business survival rates show the percentage of businesses that are still registered for VAT and/or PAYE a certain number of years after they first registered. Data are split by industrial sector and all UK government office regions and local authority areas.
There is no single definition of a small firm. Our statistics define SMEs as businesses with less than 250 employees. However other commonly used definitions also take turnover and balance sheet information into account.
The Companies Act 1985 definitions for an SME in relation to compulsory audit thresholds are described on the following page.
Thresholds for small and Medium-sized Companies and Groups
The European Commission web site has a full explanation of the European Definition of an SME.
European Definition of an SME
All of the main series of statistics produced by the Small Business Service are derived from data held on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR has records for 2.2 million of the estimated 4.8 million UK enterprises (at the start of 2008). Ad-hoc analysis of the data for statistical purposes can be commissioned from the ONS.
Inter-Departmental Business Register
