Small businesses in the UK

• At the start of 2019 there were 5.82 million small businesses (with 0 to 49 employees), 99.3% of the total business. SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population (5.9 million businesses).
• SMEs account for three fifths of the employment and around half of turnover in the UK private sector.
• Total employment in SMEs was 16.6 million (60% of the total), whilst turnover was estimated at £2.2 trillion (52%)
• 1.4 million of these had employees and 4.5 million had no employees.
• The UK private sector business population is made up of 3.5 million sole proprietorships (59% of the total), 2.0 million actively trading companies (34%) and 405,000 ordinary partnerships (7%) in 2019.
• 2.6 million private sector businesses as registered for VAT or PAYE, 45% of the estimated total population.

Source: Federation of Small Business

 

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