Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions
Background and methodology
Following on from a public consultation and methodological review, the publication Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Statistics for the UK and Regions changed. Whilst using broadly the same methodology, the series was re-named Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions for the 2010 edition, to highlight the fact that several improvements were made to the methodology. A further improvement to the methodology has been implemented for the 2011 edition – see the Methodology Note accompanying the 2011 publication for more details.
Estimates in Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions are based on an improved methodology, which has an impact on the estimate of the number of businesses in the UK. They are therefore not directly comparable with estimates from previous editions of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for the UK and Regions.
An article was published in the Economic and Labour Market Review in April 2011, providing further details on the impact of the methodological changes on the series.
Published editions
Outputs from the Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions including the Statistical Release, a Methodology Note and detailed data tables for each publication are shown below.
For the first time, the 2011 edition contains a time-series of headline level estimates of the number of enterprises in the UK using a consistent methodology throughout (including the further improvement introduced since the BPE 2010 publication). Therefore information in the 2011 edition revises and supersedes previously published estimates in this series of the total number of enterprises for 2000-2010.
* Updated version loaded on 20 October 2011 with corrected data labels on figure 9
The 2012 edition of Business Population Estimates for the UK and Regions will be published in October 2012.
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