How many retail companies are there in the UK?

There are 506,093 active retail companies with a registered office in the UK, according to Companies House records. 155,539 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: 506,093
With recent accounts, not dormant: 155,539
Employees reported in accounts: 525,644
Median net assets: £4,932
Data as of: 31 Jan 2026

Of the 506,093 active retail companies registered in the UK, 36,516 are dormant and 155,539 are not dormant and have filed accounts in the last 21 months. The figures below describe those 155,539 companies, unless a table says otherwise.

Together, the 105,842 companies that reported at least one employee reported 525,644 employees in their latest accounts. The median among them is 2.

By size of accounts

Retail companies in the UK by accounts category
Accounts category	Companies	Share
Micro-entity accounts	85,711	55.1%
Small company accounts	69,180	44.5%
Medium company accounts	166	0.1%
Medium or large company accounts	21	0.0%
Category not known	461	0.3%

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

By number of employees

Retail companies in the UK by average number of employees
Average employees	Companies	Share
None or not reported	49,697	32.0%
1 to 4	79,750	51.3%
5 to 9	15,609	10.0%
10 to 49	9,622	6.2%
50 to 249	802	0.5%
250 or more	59	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 retail companies in the UK by years since incorporation
Years since incorporation	Companies	Share
Under 2 years	243,387	48.1%
2 to 4 years	93,351	18.4%
5 to 9 years	86,388	17.1%
10 to 19 years	54,543	10.8%
20 years or more	28,423	5.6%

All active companies, dormant ones included.

By year of incorporation

Active retail companies in the UK by year of incorporation
Incorporated in	Companies
2021	25,835
2022	26,672
2023	38,715
2024	51,236
2025	106,576

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 retail companies in the UK, with the number of companies each median is taken from
Figure	Median	Companies reporting it
Net assets	£4,932	128,918
Employees (companies with one or more)	2	105,842
Cash at bank	£13,596	60,599
Cash at bank per employee	£5,490	48,618
Fixed assets per employee	£3,728	57,748

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.

58,267 of the 112,509 companies with net assets for two consecutive years (51.8%) reported higher net assets than the year before.

Download CSV Every figure on this page, unformatted.

How these figures were produced

Industry

Companies with any of these SIC codes on their Companies House record:

every code beginning 47 – Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles

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

34,830 of the 155,539 companies with recent accounts (22.4%) are registered at an address shared by 50 or more companies, such as an accountant's office. Those companies may trade somewhere else.