The Top 8000 Companies in The United Kingdom

This study looks at all companies registered in the United Kingdom and where their total

assets are more than £240,000,000.

The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the key movers and shakers in the United Kingdom corporate sector. Only key data has been isolated, particularly the company’s net worth and total assets, but also their full name, date incorporated, registered office, activities, shareholders, directors (with date of birth, occupation and nationality) and number of employees.

Two indicators of size are used: net worth and total assets. These are preferable to turnover which is influenced by profit margins and whether the companies are capital orlabour intensive.

A short summary of the corporate sector in the United Kingdom:

The UK’s population is 66 million. UK GDP growth in 2018 is 1.3% with inflation (CPI) at 2.5%. The UK economy is nineteenth-largest measured by GDP per capita. The service sector contributes 80% of GDP. The pharmaceutical industry is the tenth-largest in the world.

There were 5.7 million UK private sector businesses, 1.3 million of these had employees and 4.3 million had no employees, therefore, 76% of businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owners.

There were 5.7 million small businesses (with 0 to 49 employees), which is 99.3% of the total business population. There are 34,000 medium-sized businesses (with 50 to 249 employees), representing 0.6% of the total business population and a further 7,300 businesses were large businesses (with 250 or more employees), which is 0.1% of the business population.

The number of VAT and/or PAYE businesses in the UK was 2.67 million. 14% of sole proprietorships and 52% of partnerships were registered for VAT or PAYE. The number of companies represents 71% of total UK businesses. Some 45% was made up of single employee limited companies.

The largest industry group is ’professional, scientific and technical’, making up 17% of all registered businesses. London has the largest number of businesses being 19%, secondly was the South East at 15%. The North East of England had 142,000 private sector businesses, the least of any English region.

There are 3.8 million registered companies. The average age on the total register in 2015-2016 was 8 years.

UK manufacturing employs 2.6 million people, contributes 11% of GVA, accounts for 44% of total exports and represents 70% of R&D.