Twenty years of it.
Companies still on the register today, counted by the year they were incorporated, across all 39 trades. Read the note underneath before you read the shape: the rise is not all growth.
New companies in these 39 trades, by year
2007 to 2026 · 2026 counts January to August only
Older years undercount. The register only holds companies that still exist. Anything formed in an earlier year and since dissolved has dropped off it, so the further back the chart goes the more it undercounts. That alone makes every trade look like it is growing. Some of the rise here is real growth and some of it is simply that recent companies have had less time to close.
Why the far end of that chart is wrong.
The Companies House register holds companies that exist. A company formed in 2007 and dissolved in 2013 is not on it, and so it is not in the 2007 column above. Every year that has had longer to lose its companies shows fewer of them. Take that far enough back and the effect stops being a caveat and becomes the whole number.
| Decade | Still on the register | Relative volume |
|---|---|---|
| 1900s | 257 | |
| 1910s | 318 | |
| 1920s | 776 | |
| 1930s | 1,385 | |
| 1940s | 1,957 | |
| 1950s | 4,260 | |
| 1960s | 9,341 | |
| 1970s | 17,046 | |
| 1980s | 42,522 | |
| 1990s | 92,091 | |
| 2000s | 326,017 | |
| 2010s | 1,050,163 | |
| 2020s (to August 2026) | 2,014,856 |
The 1900s row is the argument in one line. The survival rate, not the formation rate, is what falls away as the table goes back, and it falls away smoothly, which is exactly what makes the raw series look like a clean growth curve.
The second tell: everything rises at once. Measured on the yearly series, 39 of the 39 trades show 2025 above 2007, including trades anyone working in them will tell you have had a hard decade. Twenty-four separate industries do not all grow together. What they have in common is not a boom, it is the register. The method page sets out where the data comes from.
30 trades growing, 9 shrinking.
Strip the distortion out and there is still a real answer in here. Compare the first 8 months of 2026 with the same 8 months of 2025: both cohorts are equally recent and have had the same time to fail, so whatever is left is a genuine change in how many people are starting that kind of business. The 2007 and 2025 columns sit alongside for contrast, and they are the ones to distrust.
- Building and trades
- Digital and professional
- Retail and food
- Transport and logistics
- People and care
- Property
| Trade | Change | Jan–Aug 2025 | Jan–Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital and professional. Web & software development | Up 84% | 8,653 | 15,939 |
| Transport and logistics. Taxi & private hire | Up 32% | 2,080 | 2,745 |
| Retail and food. Online retail | Up 30% | 22,512 | 29,194 |
| Digital and professional. Education & training | Up 29% | 5,678 | 7,298 |
| Building and trades. Plumbers & HVAC | Up 25% | 3,682 | 4,594 |
| Digital and professional. IT support | Up 25% | 5,612 | 7,000 |
| Building and trades. Electricians | Up 18% | 4,057 | 4,789 |
| Digital and professional. Management consultancy | Up 17% | 19,782 | 23,217 |
| People and care. Childcare | Up 16% | 1,022 | 1,181 |
| Digital and professional. Architecture & engineering | Up 16% | 6,838 | 7,942 |
| Digital and professional. Advertising & design | Up 16% | 8,118 | 9,377 |
| Digital and professional. IT consultancy | Up 14% | 10,204 | 11,599 |
| Transport and logistics. Motor vehicle repair | Up 14% | 5,264 | 6,011 |
| Building and trades. Construction | Up 12% | 37,373 | 41,840 |
| Digital and professional. Legal services | Up 10% | 1,202 | 1,323 |
| Transport and logistics. Freight & couriers | Up 9% | 9,156 | 9,941 |
| Building and trades. Landscaping | Up 9% | 2,300 | 2,517 |
| Retail and food. Wholesale | Up 9% | 3,416 | 3,707 |
| Retail and food. Restaurants & cafes | Up 8% | 11,593 | 12,556 |
| Retail and food. Takeaways | Up 7% | 12,481 | 13,343 |
| Retail and food. Hairdressing & beauty | Up 7% | 8,393 | 9,002 |
| People and care. Fitness | Up 7% | 1,966 | 2,095 |
| Retail and food. Catering & events | Up 7% | 6,770 | 7,223 |
| Transport and logistics. Used car dealers | Up 6% | 4,154 | 4,388 |
| People and care. Cleaning services | Up 5% | 7,821 | 8,240 |
| Transport and logistics. Removals | Up 4% | 1,081 | 1,126 |
| Retail and food. Convenience stores | Up 4% | 7,835 | 8,167 |
| Digital and professional. Business support services | Up 1% | 8,835 | 8,962 |
| People and care. Health practitioners | Up 1% | 12,719 | 12,833 |
| Retail and food. Pubs & bars | Up 1% | 4,321 | 4,384 |
| People and care. Care services | Down 1% | 3,255 | 3,226 |
| People and care. Security services | Down 2% | 1,619 | 1,586 |
| Digital and professional. Estate agents | Down 5% | 2,785 | 2,637 |
| Property. Property investment & letting | Down 6% | 45,051 | 42,220 |
| Digital and professional. Recruitment | Down 6% | 2,488 | 2,334 |
| Digital and professional. Accounting | Down 7% | 2,841 | 2,645 |
| Property. Property management | Down 8% | 14,496 | 13,353 |
| People and care. Veterinary | Down 9% | 298 | 271 |
| Digital and professional. Photography | Down 9% | 1,552 | 1,420 |
30 of the 39 trades registered more companies in the first 8 months of 2026 than in the same months of 2025; 9 registered fewer. Web & software development moved most on the way up, at 84% (8,653 to 15,939). Photography moved most on the way down, at 9% (1,552 to 1,420). Every trade opens on its own page, with the same comparison broken down by town.
Which parts of the economy moved.
The 39 trades grouped into five families, ranked on the last twelve months, each with its own like-for-like change on the first 8 months of the year. Each family has a page carrying its own history and its own busiest towns.
Up 20% on Jan–Aug 2025 Retail and food 128,027 Last 12 months · 8 trades
Up 13% on Jan–Aug 2025 Property 84,970 Last 12 months · 2 trades
Down 7% on Jan–Aug 2025 Building and trades 76,467 Last 12 months · 4 trades
Up 13% on Jan–Aug 2025 People and care 43,520 Last 12 months · 7 trades
Up 3% on Jan–Aug 2025 Transport and logistics 36,231 Last 12 months · 5 trades
Up 11% on Jan–Aug 2025
All 39 trades this month · Every town counted · How the counts are made
Every figure on this page is a count of companies still on the Companies House register at the 1 September 2026 snapshot, grouped by SIC code. Nothing is modelled, and no attempt is made to estimate the companies that have already gone. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
1,030 companies from August 2026 across 39 trades you can actually contact. From £15.
Every record carries the company's name, number, registered address, directors, website and an email address we checked as deliverable and tied to that company. Companies we could not verify are left out, not padded in, and you are not charged for them.
Bought per trade, or as one file for a family of trades. National, the whole UK; filter by town in the file. Closed months only, so the count you see is the count you get. £0.30 a record, £15 minimum.
- Web & software development about 250 £77.10
- Construction about 110 £34.50
- IT consultancy about 100 £30.30
- Online retail about 80 £25.20
- IT support about 40 £15
- Every trade, with its count and price
Exact record count, the price and a sample row by email, usually the same working day. Asking is not ordering.
Not ready to buy? The names alone, without contacts, are on the public register and we give them away: every new company in the UK in the last 30 days (25,200 to 25 September 2026), as a CSV per trade. Pick the trade.