Where new UK businesses are being created, region by region
London opens more businesses per head than anywhere else in the UK, at 12.7% a year. But it also closes them faster than Northern Ireland, and the region where new firms last longest is neither. Here is the regional picture.
Ask where British businesses are being created and most people say London. They are right, and it is the least interesting part of the answer.
The regional figures are more useful when you stop looking at openings alone. Three numbers matter: how many firms open, how many close, and how many are still there five years later. No region wins all three.
Openings: London leads
London had the highest business opening rate in the UK in 2024, at 12.7%.
The rest of the top of the table:
- London: 12.7% opened, 10.3% closed
- North West: 11.9% opened, 10.5% closed
- West Midlands: 11.8% opened, 10.6% closed
- Northern Ireland: 9.5% opened, 7.3% closed
The UK as a whole opened at 11.1% and closed at 9.8%.
A rate rather than a count is the right way to read this. London obviously creates more businesses than Northern Ireland in raw numbers, because it is far bigger. The rate answers a better question: out of the businesses already there, how many are new?
Closings: Northern Ireland is the quietest place in the UK
Northern Ireland closed 7.3% of its businesses in 2024, the lowest rate in the UK, alongside the lowest opening rate at 9.5%.
That combination describes a settled market. Fewer new arrivals, fewer disappearances, and the same firms trading year after year.
London is the opposite. It has the highest opening rate and closes more than Northern Ireland does. That is a market that renews itself constantly.
Neither is better. They are different, and they reward different selling.
Busy region. Now put names to it.
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.
Survival: the South West wins, and it is not close
Of businesses that opened in 2019, 43.5% in the South West were still trading five years later. In the West Midlands it was 30.6%.
Look at what that does to the picture. The West Midlands has one of the highest opening rates in the country and the worst five-year survival. Lots of firms starting, comparatively few lasting.
The South West does not appear at the top of the openings table at all, and yet a business started there had by far the best chance of still being open in 2024.
If you are choosing a region to sell into and you care about customers who will still be customers in three years, survival is the number to lead with.
The three questions, and which number answers each
Keep them separate and the regional data becomes genuinely useful:
- "Where is there constant new demand?" Openings. London, the North West, the West Midlands.
- "Where are my customers least likely to disappear?" Closings and survival. Northern Ireland and the South West.
- "Where will a list I build today still be right next year?" Closings, again. A low closing rate means less rot.
Most published regional rankings answer only the first question and let readers assume it answers all three.
What this means for the way you sell
A churning region needs a search that keeps running. In London, a list built in January is measurably wrong by June. A standing search that keeps delivering new matches beats buying a list twice a year.
A settled region rewards depth over speed. In Northern Ireland the same firms will be there next year. Time spent on a proper introduction is not wasted, and the same list stays useful far longer.
Do not use the national average for a local business. If you sell inside one region, the UK-wide 11.1% and 9.8% describe a country you are not selling in.
Region and trade compound. The regional gaps above are wide. Combined with trade, they get wider: only 14.8% of transport and storage businesses born in Wales in 2019 lasted five years. That is a different world from the South West average of 43.5%. More on that split in UK business survival rates by industry.
Going smaller than a region
Regions are big and blunt. A rate for the whole North West tells you very little about a single town.
For local work, the public record is better than the statistics, because every company on it carries a registered address and a postcode. That lets you draw the area you actually sell in, rather than the one the statisticians drew. The practical method is in how to find UK companies by postcode.
Where these figures come from
All opening, closing and survival rates here are from the ONS bulletin *Business demography, UK: 2024*, published on 20 November 2025. Survival figures describe businesses that opened in 2019. For the national picture behind these splits, see how many UK businesses open and close each year. For the trade-by-trade view, see the fastest growing UK industries.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Put names to your patch
A regional rate describes thousands of firms without naming one of them.
Leadistry reads the live UK public record. Pick your region, your postcodes and your trades, and you get the actual firms. Each one comes with a working website and a verified business email. Counting is free, so you can see the size of your patch before you spend anything.
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Common questions
Which UK region creates the most new businesses?
London, with an opening rate of 12.7% in 2024, ahead of the North West at 11.9% and the West Midlands at 11.8%.
Which UK region has the lowest business turnover?
Northern Ireland, where 9.5% of businesses were new and 7.3% closed in 2024. Both are the lowest rates in the UK.
Do more new businesses mean a better market to sell into?
Not on its own. London opens the most and also closes more than Northern Ireland, and the South West beats both on how long new firms last. Openings, closings and survival answer three different questions.