Five families, 39 trades.
Companies House does not publish a trade. It publishes SIC codes, and a company can carry up to four of them. The 39 groups below are ours: each one is a set of SIC codes we picked because a small business would recognise it as a trade. The five families are ours too, and exist only to keep the colour on every chart meaningful. Here is exactly what sits in each, so you can see what a family does and does not include.
Management consultancy, Web & software development, IT consultancy, Advertising & design, Business support services, Architecture & engineering, Education & training, IT support, Accounting, Estate agents, Recruitment, Photography, Legal services Retail and food 128,027 8 trades · Last 12 months
Online retail, Takeaways, Restaurants & cafes, Hairdressing & beauty, Convenience stores, Catering & events, Pubs & bars, Wholesale Property 84,970 2 trades · Last 12 months
Property investment & letting, Property management Building and trades 76,467 4 trades · Last 12 months
Construction, Electricians, Plumbers & HVAC, Landscaping People and care 43,520 7 trades · Last 12 months
Health practitioners, Cleaning services, Care services, Fitness, Security services, Childcare, Veterinary Transport and logistics 36,231 5 trades · Last 12 months
Freight & couriers, Motor vehicle repair, Used car dealers, Taxi & private hire, Removals
A company carrying more than one SIC code can land in more than one group, and a company whose codes sit outside all 39 is not counted at all. So the family totals add up to the total of the rows, not to a headcount of every company on the register. Every SIC code in every group is listed on the method page, and each family card above opens on a page of its own.
Every trade, busiest first.
Companies registered during August 2026, and the running total for the twelve months to the end of that month. Each trade opens on its own page, where the same count is broken down across every town with enough volume to be worth reading.
- Building and trades
- Digital and professional
- Retail and food
- Transport and logistics
- People and care
- Property
| Trade | Aug 2026 | Last 12 months | Relative August volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building and trades. Construction | 4,507 | 59,756 | |
| Property. Property investment & letting | 4,284 | 64,874 | |
| Retail and food. Online retail | 4,043 | 42,359 | |
| Digital and professional. Management consultancy | 2,557 | 33,509 | |
| Digital and professional. Web & software development | 2,141 | 21,288 | |
| Retail and food. Takeaways | 1,425 | 19,602 | |
| Property. Property management | 1,413 | 20,096 | |
| Retail and food. Restaurants & cafes | 1,403 | 18,439 | |
| People and care. Health practitioners | 1,363 | 18,963 | |
| Digital and professional. IT consultancy | 1,303 | 17,010 | |
| Transport and logistics. Freight & couriers | 1,242 | 15,330 | |
| Digital and professional. Advertising & design | 1,100 | 13,730 | |
| Digital and professional. Business support services | 961 | 13,297 | |
| People and care. Cleaning services | 951 | 12,178 | |
| Retail and food. Convenience stores | 950 | 12,267 | |
| Retail and food. Hairdressing & beauty | 944 | 13,171 | |
| Digital and professional. Architecture & engineering | 860 | 11,386 | |
| Retail and food. Catering & events | 836 | 10,327 | |
| Digital and professional. Education & training | 833 | 10,545 | |
| Digital and professional. IT support | 745 | 10,177 | |
| Transport and logistics. Motor vehicle repair | 678 | 8,660 | |
| Transport and logistics. Used car dealers | 539 | 6,572 | |
| Building and trades. Plumbers & HVAC | 511 | 6,429 | |
| Retail and food. Pubs & bars | 487 | 6,305 | |
| Building and trades. Electricians | 486 | 6,784 | |
| Retail and food. Wholesale | 466 | 5,557 | |
| People and care. Care services | 405 | 4,829 | |
| Transport and logistics. Taxi & private hire | 355 | 3,983 | |
| Digital and professional. Estate agents | 307 | 4,003 | |
| Building and trades. Landscaping | 293 | 3,498 | |
| Digital and professional. Accounting | 266 | 4,018 | |
| Digital and professional. Recruitment | 259 | 3,565 | |
| People and care. Fitness | 230 | 3,044 | |
| People and care. Security services | 181 | 2,404 | |
| Digital and professional. Photography | 164 | 2,149 | |
| Transport and logistics. Removals | 137 | 1,686 | |
| Digital and professional. Legal services | 122 | 1,918 | |
| People and care. Childcare | 109 | 1,687 | |
| People and care. Veterinary | 30 | 415 | |
| Total of the 39 trades | 39,886 | 515,810 |
Counts are of new company incorporations by SIC code. A company carrying more than one SIC code can appear in more than one trade group, and only companies still on the register at the 1 September 2026 snapshot are counted, so the figure above is a total of the rows rather than a headcount of every company registered.
30 trades growing, 9 shrinking.
The yearly series on every trade page runs back decades, and on it all 39 trades rise. That is mostly an artefact: a company incorporated in 2024 has had two more years to close and drop off the register than one incorporated in 2026. So the ranking below is the like-for-like comparison instead: the first 8 months of 2026 against the same 8 months of 2025. The long-run columns are shown beside it, and they are the ones to distrust.
| 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).
Why the 2024 and 2025 columns cannot settle it. 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. On those two columns alone every one of the 39 trades looks like it grew, which is exactly the problem. The long view sets the whole series out and shows how far the distortion goes.
The same counts, by town.
Every one of these 39 trades is also counted in 1,082 towns, on 3,083 trade-and-town pages plus a page for each town on its own. Counts are by the post town on the registered office address, except where that office is a formation agent and the company's real town could be established from its directors' other companies.
Browse all 1,082 towns · The long view, year by year · How the counts are made
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.