WIREDGOV

Our annual statistical release provides information about the number of companies on the register, newly incorporated companies, and removals from the register.

Our latest official annual statistics were released on 27 June 2019. They’re used by government, businesses and the general public for research, business decision making and for understanding more about changes to the UK economy.

Register size

At the end of March 2019, there were 4,202,044 companies on the register. This is an increase of 4.2% compared to last year.

Growth of the register

During 2018 to 2019, the growth of the register has slowed by 4.2% compared with the average growth of the previous 5 years.

New companies

There were 672,890 new companies registered in 2018 to 2019. This is an increase of 8.5% compared to last year and the highest number of incorporations since 2009 to 2010.

Dissolutions

There were 508,865 companies dissolved in 2018 to 2019. This is the largest number of dissolutions since 2009 to 2010.

Average age of a company

As of March 2019, the average age of a company on the register was 8.5 years. Since 2000, this has gradually declined from 10.7 years.

Types of corporate bodies

Since 2004, private limited companies have consistently accounted for over 96% of all corporate body types on the register.

Overseas corporate bodies

Incorporated outside of the UK, overseas corporate bodies have a physical presence in the UK such as a place of business or branch. At the end of March 2019, there were 12,241 on the total register.

These figures have been taken from the Companies House full statistical release for 2018 to 2019.

Our next quarterly release for April to June 2019 will be published on 25 July 2019 at 9:30am.