Businesses in Scotland: 2024

Business Size

As at March 2024, there were an estimated 358,235 private sector businesses operating in Scotland. The vast majority of these businesses (98.2%) were small (0 to 49 employees). A further 3,950 businesses (1.1%) were medium-sized (50 to 249 employees) and 2,425 businesses (0.7%) were large (250 or more employees).

As at March 2024, there were 355,805 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) operating in Scotland. SMEs provided an estimated 1.2 million jobs, which was 55.9% of private sector employment. SMEs accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses and 41.7% of private sector turnover as at March 2024.

Small (0 to 49 employees) businesses alone accounted for 98.2% of all private sector businesses. These provided 42.7% of private sector employment and 27.3% of private sector turnover as at March 2024.

The 2,425 large (250+ employees) businesses provided 44.1% of private sector employment. These accounted for 58.3% of private sector turnover as at March 2024.

Figure 1: As at March 2024, the vast majority (98.2%) of private sector businesses operating in Scotland were small (0 to 49 employees).

Share of businesses, employment and turnover by size, as at March 2024.

Source: Businesses in Scotland 2024 from the Scottish Government. For Figure 1 data see table B.

The total number of businesses operating in Scotland includes registered and unregistered businesses. A business must register for VAT if its annual turnover is over the VAT threshold of £85,000 (as at March 2024). A business will register for PAYE if it employs anyone. Unregistered businesses are registered neither for VAT nor for PAYE. As at March 2024, unregistered businesses represented 51.4% of all private sector businesses in Scotland.