How many companies are there in the UK?

There are 5,556,494 active companies with a registered office in the UK, according to Companies House records. 2,061,209 of them are not dormant and have filed accounts in the last 21 months (data to 31 Jan 2026).

These figures last changed on 9 Oct 2026 and were last checked against the data on 9 Oct 2026.

Active companies: 5,556,494
With recent accounts, not dormant: 2,061,209
Employees reported in accounts: 6,763,491
Median net assets: £9,119
Data as of: 31 Jan 2026

Of the 5,556,494 active companies registered in the UK, 517,226 are dormant and 2,061,209 are not dormant and have filed accounts in the last 21 months. The figures below describe those 2,061,209 companies, unless a table says otherwise.

Together, the 1,379,092 companies that reported at least one employee reported 6,763,491 employees in their latest accounts. The median among them is 2.

By size of accounts

Companies in the UK by accounts category
Accounts category	Companies	Share
Micro-entity accounts	988,698	48.0%
Small company accounts	1,056,975	51.3%
Medium company accounts	2,625	0.1%
Medium or large company accounts	541	0.0%
Category not known	12,370	0.6%

The category is the type of accounts a company filed, which follows its size. Micro-entities are the smallest.

By number of employees

Companies in the UK by average number of employees
Average employees	Companies	Share
None or not reported	682,117	33.1%
1 to 4	1,126,280	54.6%
5 to 9	129,860	6.3%
10 to 49	107,865	5.2%
50 to 249	14,144	0.7%
250 or more	943	0.0%

Average employees in the latest accounts. Many small companies have no employees other than their directors, or do not state a number.

By age

Active companies in the UK by years since incorporation
Years since incorporation	Companies	Share
Under 2 years	1,725,187	31.0%
2 to 4 years	1,007,189	18.1%
5 to 9 years	1,192,525	21.5%
10 to 19 years	1,011,506	18.2%
20 years or more	620,049	11.2%

All active companies, dormant ones included.

By year of incorporation

Active companies in the UK by year of incorporation
Incorporated in	Companies
2021	286,757
2022	316,218
2023	388,338
2024	467,004
2025	705,540

Companies incorporated in each year that are still active. Companies that have since closed are not counted, so these are not the numbers formed in each year.

Typical figures

Median figures for companies in the UK, with the number of companies each median is taken from
Figure	Median	Companies reporting it
Net assets	£9,119	1,659,956
Employees (companies with one or more)	2	1,379,092
Cash at bank	£16,853	885,934
Cash at bank per employee	£7,922	667,183
Fixed assets per employee	£4,837	739,096

The median is the middle company: half report more and half report less. Each median covers only the companies that reported that figure, so it describes those companies and not every company in the industry. A median is shown only when at least 30 companies reported the figure.

765,780 of the 1,476,102 companies with net assets for two consecutive years (51.9%) reported higher net assets than the year before.

Download CSV Every figure on this page, unformatted.

How these figures were produced

Industry: All industries: every company, whatever its SIC code.
Location: Every company on the UK register, wherever its registered office is.
Active companies: Companies whose status at Companies House is active. Dissolved companies are not in the data.
Recent accounts: Accounts made up to a date in the 21 months before 31 Jan 2026, the newest accounts date in the data.
Registered addresses: 574,438 of the 2,061,209 companies with recent accounts (27.9%) are registered at an address shared by 50 or more companies, such as an accountant's office. Those companies may trade somewhere else.