Government · UK · Office for National Statistics
97 UK Businesses Closed for Every 100 Created in Q2
The UK created 79,325 businesses between April and June 2026 and closed 76,840 of them in the same three months. Net growth of 2,485 on a base of roughly 2.7 million firms means the addressable market for anyone selling to UK businesses is effectively flat.
Source published Summarised
Key findings at a glance
- 79,325 UK business creations in Quarter 2 2026, up 2.2% on the same quarter a year earlier
- 76,840 UK business closures over the same three months, up 2.0% year on year
- 2,485 net addition to the UK business register across the entire quarter
- 2.7 million businesses on the Inter-Departmental Business Register these counts are drawn from
- 12.3% rise in creations in business administration and support services, the fastest of any industry
- 4.9% fall in closures in business administration and support services, the same sector with the fastest-rising creations
- 9.9% rise in creations in information and communication, the second fastest-growing industry
- 6,120 closures in information and communication, still ahead of that sector's creations
- 12,430 creations in professional, scientific and technical activities, the largest single industry for new businesses
- 1.9% fall in business creations in London, the steepest decline of any UK region
- 12.9% rise in business creations in Scotland, the strongest of any UK nation or region
- 28.4% rise in closures in agriculture, forestry and fishing, the sharpest increase of any industry
What the report covers
The Office for National Statistics published Business demography, quarterly, UK: April to June 2026 on 30 July 2026. It counts business creations and closures recorded on the Inter-Departmental Business Register, the administrative list of every UK business registered for VAT or PAYE, with breakdowns across 16 industry groups and every UK nation and region.
The headline movements look healthy in isolation. Creations rose 2.2% year on year to 79,325 and closures rose 2.0% to 76,840. Read together, they cancel each other out. The register gained 2,485 businesses over three months, against 2,250 in the same quarter of 2025. On a base of roughly 2.7 million businesses, that is a rounding error rather than growth.
Beneath the totals, the sector picture is uneven. Business administration and support services was the standout, with creations up 12.3% and closures down 4.9%. Information and communication saw creations climb 9.9%, yet still recorded more closures (6,120) than creations (6,015). Professional, scientific and technical activities remains the largest source of new businesses at 12,430 creations, almost exactly matched by 12,425 closures. For context on how many of these firms are digitally established at all, see our earlier report on UK business website adoption.
What this means for UK marketers
The practical message for UK marketers is that new business formation is no longer a growth engine you can lean on. If your pipeline assumes a steadily expanding pool of prospects, the data says otherwise: roughly 97 businesses closed for every 100 that opened. Growth this year has to come from share, not from the market getting bigger. That changes where budget belongs, favouring retention, expansion revenue and competitive displacement over pure top-of-funnel volume.
The sector splits are a targeting signal worth acting on. Business administration and support services is the one clearly expanding category, with creations up 12.3% and closures down 4.9%. That cohort of new outsourced-services firms needs branding, a website and a lead engine from a standing start, and they are forming faster than they are failing. Information and communication is the opposite case: creations are up nearly 10%, but closures still outnumber them, so churn is high and customer acquisition cost in that segment deserves a hard look before you commit spend.
Geography matters more than usual this quarter. London was the only region where creations fell outright, down 1.9%, while its closures rose 2.8%. Scotland moved the other way, with creations up 12.9%. Agencies that default to London-weighted targeting on the assumption that is where the new business is are working from a stale map. Scotland, the South West (up 3.7%) and the East (up 3.2%) are where formation is actually accelerating, and they are considerably cheaper to reach on paid search.
Read alongside our report on the cooling UK labour market, the picture is one of an economy churning rather than expanding. In that environment the agencies and in-house teams that win are the ones measuring lifetime value properly and treating existing customers as the growth channel. If you want that built into your acquisition and retention mix, that is the core of our digital marketing services.
How they got the data
The figures come from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), the ONS database of every UK business registered for VAT or PAYE, covering approximately 2.7 million enterprises. A creation is a new enterprise entry on the register, usually triggered by a VAT or PAYE registration. A closure is a removal, applied when turnover and employment have been zero for several periods or when the ONS is notified that the business has ceased trading. Source data comes from VAT and PAYE records, ONS business surveys and Companies House. Full detail on the register itself is set out in the ONS guide to the IDBR.
Two caveats matter when reading these numbers. All counts are control rounded to base 5, so derived figures such as the 2,485 net addition carry a small margin of imprecision. And these are labelled official statistics in development, meaning the methodology is still being refined: businesses holding a company number but no VAT or PAYE registration are excluded, and agriculture closure figures were revised downward for earlier periods in the Quarter 1 2026 release. The annual Business demography, UK: 2024 bulletin remains the accredited series for longer-run comparisons.
Government · UK
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From Office for National Statistics · published 30/07/2026