business confidence reports ยป county league tables
Our county league tables rank UK counties on a number of key business confidence metrics. You can use these league tables to check the relative performance of one county against another.
An active company for the purpose of these league tables is defined as one that has not been dissolved, though it is possible that active companies will include a number of non trading companies or companies intending to dissolve.
The data is calculated from Companies House register of companies in England & Wales (Cardiff), Scotland (Edinburgh) and Northern Ireland (Belfast). Geographical boundaries and groupings are performed using prioprietary data modelling and software.
- This table organises UK counties by their relative net growth during the period selected
- Net growth is a product of new companies created minus companies which have been dissolved
- The percentage figure shows relative growth in relation to the number of active companies at the start of the period
- This table only ranks the 50 largest UK counties (by active company volume as defined in the Active table) to avoid low activity counties skewing the data
| county | rank | growth% | growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Midlothian | 1 | 3.28 | 1099 |
| Northamptonshire | 2 | 2.56 | 726 |
| Greater London | 3 | 2.45 | 16671 |
| Cheshire | 4 | 2.27 | 1221 |
| Cardiff | 5 | 2.09 | 369 |
| Belfast | 6 | 2.03 | 260 |
| Merseyside | 7 | 2.02 | 860 |
| Cornwall | 8 | 1.93 | 282 |
| Lincolnshire | 9 | 1.83 | 587 |
| Dorset | 10 | 1.82 | 693 |
| Bedfordshire | 11 | 1.79 | 485 |
| Shropshire | 12 | 1.73 | 279 |
| Essex | 13 | 1.69 | 2116 |
| Fife | 14 | 1.62 | 127 |
| Buckinghamshire | 15 | 1.61 | 742 |
| East Sussex | 16 | 1.58 | 778 |
| Wiltshire | 17 | 1.56 | 433 |
| Bristol | 18 | 1.53 | 621 |
| Hampshire | 19 | 1.51 | 1216 |
| Cambridgeshire | 20 | 1.48 | 497 |
| North Yorkshire | 21 | 1.47 | 533 |
| Surrey | 22 | 1.47 | 1850 |
| Derbyshire | 23 | 1.46 | 475 |
| Oxfordshire | 24 | 1.37 | 426 |
| Hertfordshire | 25 | 1.36 | 1193 |
| Lancashire | 26 | 1.35 | 715 |
| Tyne And Wear | 27 | 1.34 | 413 |
| Gloucestershire | 28 | 1.32 | 375 |
| Norfolk | 29 | 1.28 | 342 |
| Kent | 30 | 1.27 | 1341 |
| Somerset | 31 | 1.27 | 400 |
| Suffolk | 32 | 1.27 | 330 |
| Greater Manchester | 33 | 1.26 | 1616 |
| Devon | 34 | 1.24 | 456 |
| West Yorkshire | 35 | 1.19 | 997 |
| Cumbria | 36 | 1.19 | 193 |
| Aberdeenshire | 37 | 1.17 | 267 |
| County Durham | 38 | 1.17 | 243 |
| West Sussex | 39 | 1.15 | 438 |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | 40 | 1.11 | 198 |
| West Midlands | 41 | 1.11 | 1468 |
| Staffordshire | 42 | 1.1 | 341 |
| Lanarkshire | 43 | 1.09 | 550 |
| Leicestershire | 44 | 1.09 | 405 |
| Nottinghamshire | 45 | 1.06 | 391 |
| Berkshire | 46 | 1.04 | 606 |
| Swansea | 47 | 0.95 | 74 |
| South Yorkshire | 48 | 0.76 | 325 |
| Warwickshire | 49 | 0.74 | 169 |
| Worcestershire | 50 | 0.7 | 170 |