Business Growth

The charts above show figures for the areas of Somerset, Heart of the South West and England. Slide one shows the growth of active business between 2017-21 and 2020-21, slide two shows the active employers per 1000 head of population and slide three shows high growth businesses per 1,000 head population.

Between 2017-2021 the number of active businesses in Somerset grew by 6.2% – compared to 3.3% across England. Between 2020-2021, the growth in business stock was 3.3%, higher than the England average of 1.4%. The combination of this data suggests a slightly more muted environment for growth in the business stock (which encapsulates the net effect of business births and deaths i.e. those businesses that have stopped trading).

There are marginally fewer businesses in Somerset when considered on a ‘per head’ basis – again, compared to the national England average. Based on the number of businesses in 2021, there were c41.2 business per 1,000 head population – compared to 45.9 across England.

Focusing specifically on high growth businesses (defined as those businesses which have sustained 20% growth in either employees or turnover over a 3-year period), Somerset had 0.10 high growth businesses per 1,000 head of population – compared to an average of 0.17 across England. It is useful to note how few businesses were defined as high growth when compared to the overall active business stock

Source: Business Demography, Office for National Statistics