UK SIC 2007 · 72200
Research and experimental development on social sciences and humanities (SIC code 72200)
Research and experimental development on social sciences and humanities is UK SIC code 72200. It sits in division 72 (Scientific research and development) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 4,380 active UK companies list 72200 among their SIC codes. 2,114 of them list it first. That makes it the third most used code in its division.
Division 72: Scientific research and development
Organisations here sell knowledge. Code 72190 is the broadest entry. It takes in natural sciences and engineering R&D, from materials work to applied physics. Code 72110 sets biotechnology research apart. Code 72200 covers social sciences and humanities. The population is mixed. You get university spinouts, grant-funded ventures that are pre-revenue by design, corporate research subsidiaries, and consultancies that picked an R&D code for genuinely experimental work. Expect a long gap between incorporation and real trading, longer than in most divisions.
Related SIC codes
Who prospects SIC 72200 companies
Investors, grant consultants and R&D tax relief advisers watch these codes closely. A new 72110 or 72190 company often follows a funding award or a spinout agreement. Lab equipment suppliers, specialist recruiters, patent attorneys and contract research organisations sell here too. Many of these companies burn funding rather than earn revenue. So filing history tells you more about health than growth figures do. A company near its accounts deadline with an abandoned website is often a shelved project, not a live buyer.
Lead generation for consultants →How to read SIC 72200
SIC 72200 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 72, are the division, scientific research and development. Add the third and you have group 722; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section M, professional, scientific and technical activities, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
More on how SIC 72200 is built
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 72200 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 72200 are London (1,697), Manchester (75), Cambridge (72), Birmingham (68) and Edinburgh (63). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 72200 as a filter
4,380 companies is 0.08 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 72200 third most used of the 3 codes we track in division 72. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
More on filtering by SIC 72200
Only 2,114 of the 4,380 companies carrying 72200 put it first. The other 2,266, 52 per cent, list it behind another code, which usually means the business does more than one thing and files 72200 as a sideline. A search that matches the first code only will miss most of this population, so match on any of the four SIC positions and use a second filter to tighten it.
The population is concentrated: the five busiest post towns hold 45 per cent of it, and London alone accounts for 39 per cent. If you sell nationally, those five towns are most of the market. If you sell locally and you are not in one of them, expect a much smaller pool and widen the radius early.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 72200 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 72200, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 4,380 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 72200 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 72200 companies, as leads
Live rows from the enriched register. Email and phone values are withheld until you sign up.
Tell us who you sell to. We find them, with a real email. 25 free leads, no card.
About SIC 72200
How many UK companies use SIC code 72200?
4,380 active UK companies list 72200 (Research and experimental development on social sciences and humanities) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 2,114 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
Do I need a division 72 SIC code to claim R&D tax relief?
No. HMRC judges R&D relief claims on the nature of the work, not the SIC code at Companies House. A company in any division can qualify. SIC codes are self-selected with no approval process. Advisers do scan division 72 for new clients, so an accurate research code may bring more approaches your way, welcome or not.
What is the difference between 72190 and an engineering code in division 71?
Division 72 is experimental development. The aim is new knowledge, prototypes or techniques. Division 71 is applying established engineering expertise to client projects. A firm doing both can hold codes from each. Companies House allows up to 4 per company, chosen at incorporation or updated on the confirmation statement (CS01). List the code covering most of your activity first.
Find UK SIC 72200 companies
✓ No card · ✓ 25 free leads · ✓ Cancel anytime