How many small businesses are there in the UK?
There were 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK at the start of 2025. Three quarters of them employ nobody but the owner. That single fact should change who you aim at and what you charge.
Watch: Three in four
At the start of 2025 there were 5.7 million private sector businesses in the UK. The shape of that number matters far more than the number itself.
The size bands
- 5.64 million small businesses, 0 to 49 employees. About 99.2% of the total.
- 38,435 medium businesses, 50 to 249 employees. About 0.67%.
- 8,335 large businesses, 250 or more employees. About 0.15%.
Small and medium businesses together make up 99.85% of the business population.
The number that changes how you sell is a different cut of the same data: 4.3 million businesses, roughly three in four, employ nobody but the owner. Only about 1.4 million have any employees at all.
Why "99% are SMEs" is a useless sentence
It is true, and it is quoted constantly, and it tells you nothing.
If 99.85% of businesses are SMEs, then saying you sell to SMEs is barely narrower than saying you sell to businesses. The category is so large it contains a one-person window cleaner and a 200-person engineering firm, and those two have nothing in common as customers.
The useful splits are inside it:
- No employees at all (4.3 million). One person, buying like a consumer, price-sensitive, no procurement.
- 1 to 9 employees. The owner still makes every decision, but there is payroll, and there are real business problems to solve.
- 10 to 49 employees. Someone other than the owner now has a budget. This is where most B2B products start to fit properly.
- 50 to 249. Proper procurement, longer cycles, bigger contracts.
Deciding which of those you sell to is a more consequential choice than deciding which industry.
Millions of firms. You need the few thousand that fit.
Tell us the kind of company you sell to. We find them on the public record, check the website and the email, and hand you the list. It takes about two minutes instead of an afternoon.
What SMEs actually account for
SMEs employed 16.9 million people at the start of 2025, about 60% of private sector employment, and turned over an estimated £2.8 trillion, about 51% of total turnover.
Notice the asymmetry. SMEs are 99.85% of businesses but around half of turnover. That is the whole picture in two numbers: enormous in count, much less so in spend. Which is exactly why a market sized by counting businesses will overstate what that market is worth.
What this means for a lead list
Three consequences.
A big count is not a big market. "There are 5.7 million UK businesses" is a fact that has misled a lot of people into thinking their addressable market is enormous. If your product needs a company with staff, your real market is more like 1.4 million. If it needs 10 or more staff, it is a few hundred thousand.
Company size should be a filter, not an afterthought. Selling a £500-a-month tool to a firm with no employees is a waste of both parties' time. The public record carries the information needed to filter this properly.
The very smallest firms are hard to reach as businesses. A one-person business often has no separate business email, no website worth the name, and no distinction between the person and the company. That is a practical limit on any B2B list, and it is the honest reason a list of "all 5.7 million" is not worth having.
Two counts, again
The 5.7 million figure comes from the Department for Business and Trade, and includes unregistered businesses. The ONS count of about 2.86 million covers only those registered for VAT or PAYE.
If you are sizing a market you can actually sell into, the smaller count is usually the more honest starting point. Which count to use when is set out in how to read ONS business data.
Where these figures come from
Size bands, jobs and turnover come from *Business population estimates 2025*, published by the Department for Business and Trade. It describes the position at the start of 2025. The comparison count is from *Business demography, UK: 2024*, ONS, published 20 November 2025.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Filter down to the ones that fit
Millions of businesses is a statistic. A few thousand that match your trade, your area and your size band is a week's work.
Leadistry reads the live UK public record. Narrow by trade, place and how long a firm has traded. Each one comes with a working website and a verified business email.
Counting is free. Start free with 25 leads.
Common questions
How many small businesses are there in the UK?
At the start of 2025 there were 5.7 million private sector businesses, of which 5.64 million had between 0 and 49 employees. That is about 99.2% of the total.
How many UK businesses have no employees?
About 4.3 million, roughly 75% of all private sector businesses. They are run by the owner alone or with partners, with no other staff.
How many large companies are there in the UK?
8,335 businesses had 250 or more employees at the start of 2025, about 0.15% of the business population.