Businesses in Scotland: 2024

Background data notes

This publication provides an estimate of the number of businesses operating in Scotland. Another term for this is Scotland’s business stock. Businesses are often also referred to as enterprises.

This publication includes all businesses that operate in Scotland. It does not matter where their head-quarters are. 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 main purpose of this publication is to provide information about the number of businesses operating in Scotland. The latest figures relate to a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) as at March 2024. 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 2023 and for turnover the latest data will tend to be from 2022.

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. A business must register for Value Added Tax (VAT) if its annual turnover is over the VAT threshold of £85,000 (as at March 2024). A business will register for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) if it employs anyone.

How to access background or source data

The data collected for this publication are available via background tables. Data can also be accessed, by accredited researchers, via the Secure Research Service (SRS).