Number Of Businesses In Scotland 2022

23rd November 2022

Information on the number of businesses (also known as enterprises) operating in Scotland.

This publication provides an estimate of the number of businesses operating in Scotland. ‘Businesses in Scotland' breaks down the Scottish business stock by business size and industry sector. There are also statistics by country of ownership, local authority area and urban/rural area.

The total number of businesses operating in Scotland includes registered and unregistered businesses. Registered businesses are businesses that are registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

Unregistered businesses are registered neither for VAT nor for PAYE. Unregistered businesses are the smallest businesses that have a turnover below the VAT threshold (£85,000) and do not employ others.

Headline results
as at March 2022, an estimated 360,910 private sector businesses were operating in Scotland

between March 2021 and March 2022, the estimated number of businesses increased by 5.2%

the number of unregistered businesses increased by 12.0% over the latest year. This increase drove the rise in the total number of private sector businesses

the number of registered businesses decreased by 1.1% over the latest year. This was driven by a decrease in the smallest registered businesses that do not employ others - particularly those in the ‘Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities' and ‘Information & Communication' industry sectors

the number of employers increased by 1.1% over the latest year
as at March 2022, there were 358,575 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) operating in Scotland. SMEs provided an estimated 1.2 million jobs, which was 55.9% of private sector employment. SMEs accounted for 99.4% of all private sector businesses and 40.2% of private sector turnover as at March 2022

Comparisons with the UK Business Stock
Scotland has a different business base structure compared to that of the UK as a whole. Table 1 below shows that, in 2022, Scotland had a business stock rate of 773 businesses per 10,000 adults. This compares to 1,014 businesses per 10,000 adults in the UK as a whole. These rates refer to both registered and unregistered businesses. Scotland has a lower rate of small businesses compared to the UK as a whole. This is especially the case for those that do not employ others. Whereas Scotland has a higher rate of large businesses than the UK. Large businesses provide a higher share of Scotland's private sector employment (44%). This is in comparison to the UK as a whole (39%). Note that the size bands used in Table 1 are as per the number of jobs in the business UK-wide.

Read the full report HERE