Title

Business births, deaths and active enterprises

Last update

24 Nov 2015 24 Nov 2015

Next update

Nov 2016

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

Business Demography, Office for National Statistics

Contact email

economic.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Designation

National Statistics

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

Local authorities

Geographical coverage

UK regions

Languages covered

English only

General description

This dataset details business births, deaths and active enterprises by area.

Data collection and calculation

ONS use data from the IDBR to produce business demography statistics, using guidelines found in the Eurostat/OECD manual on Business Demography. The starting point for demography is the concept of a population of active businesses in a reference year. These are defined as businesses that had either turnover or employment at any time during the reference period. Births and deaths are then identified by comparing active populations for different years.

A birth is defined as a business that was present in year t, but did not exist in year t-1 or t-2. Births are identified by making a comparison of annual active population files and identifying those present in the latest one, but not the two previous ones.

A death is defined as a business that was on the active file in year t but no longer present on the active file for year t+1 or t+2. To produce more timely statistics, the UK business demography statistics contain a preliminary death indicator, which includes an adjustment for estimated reactivations. Reactivations occur where a business becomes dormant for a period of less than 2 years, then recommences activity in a manner which complies with a definition of continuity. If the definition of continuity is not met (e.g. if a business recommences activity but at a different location and with a different activity), this would be considered a death followed by a birth. Reactivations can also occur due to lags in the administrative data source (VAT/PAYE) so that a business that continues to trade can appear to die. The deaths data exclude losses to the population as a result of mergers, break-ups, split-offs or other re-structuring.
The ONS business demography statistics differ from the former Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) statistics statistics in that they include PAYE-registered units. Therefore, the ONS statistics will additionally include the births and deaths of employing businesses which are not VAT-registered, providing a more comprehensive view of business start-up activity. The ONS data also has a higher number of active businesses than both the former BERR VAT-based series and the expanded UK Business: Activity Size and Location publication. This is because the business demography methodology takes into account businesses that were active at any time during the reference year, whereas the former BERR series calculates stock by adding registrations and substracting deregistrations from the previous year’s stock; the UK Business: Activity Size and Location publication is based on a snapshot taken from the IDBR at a point in time in March. Additionally, business demography includes a group of non-corporate PAYE businesses, which are excluded from the UK Business: Activity Size and Location due to a small risk of duplication.

Frequency of publication

Annual

Data reference periods

2002 to 2014

Rounding applied

Data are rounded to nearest 5.

Revisions information

The latest two years' estimates on births and deaths are subject to revision, which would normally be made in the following year's publication.

Statistical quality

A statistical quality report can be found at the link below: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/method-quality/quality/quality-information/business-and-energy/quality-and-methodology-information-for-business-demography.pdf

Keywords

businesses

Name

ECON0080