Businesses in Scotland: 2023

Introduction

This publication provides an estimate of the number of businesses operating in Scotland. ‘Businesses in Scotland’ breaks down the Scottish business stock by business size and industry sector. There are also statistics by country of ownership, local authority area and urban/rural area.

The total number of businesses operating in Scotland includes registered and unregistered businesses. Registered businesses are businesses that are registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE). Unregistered businesses are registered neither for VAT nor for PAYE. Unregistered businesses are the smallest businesses that have a turnover below the VAT threshold (£85,000) and do not employ others.    

In ‘Businesses in Scotland’ it does not matter where the business head-quarters is. This differs from UK-wide publications. These tend to publish region/country results according to where a business has its head-quarters. ‘Businesses in Scotland’ goes wider than this. This publication provides statistics on all businesses with a presence in Scotland.

The focus of this publication is on private sector businesses. The private sector includes the following types of business:

•        Companies (including Building Societies)

•        Sole Proprietors

•        Partnerships

•        Public Corporations/Nationalised Bodies

•        Non-profit making bodies and mutual associations

The latest figures relate to a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) as at March 2023. But the estimates also include information about businesses’ employment and turnover. These employment and turnover variables get updated on the IDBR via several sources and at different times. This needs consideration if comparing employment and turnover estimates over time. The employment and turnover data should be treated as ‘auxiliary variables’. These auxiliary variables can be used to compare turnover or employment shares across industrial sectors or size bands or areas, or to determine how turnover or employment shares have changed over a period of several years. For employment the latest data will tend to be from 2022 and for turnover the latest data will tend to be from 2021.

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The statistics in this release were accredited in March 2012.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.