Companies House registrations grew by 4.6% last financial year

Companies House has released its activity report for the financial year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, showing a significant increase in the number of UK and overseas companies on the register.

The headline result reveals that at the end of the last financial year, an enormous 5,350,759 businesses were registered with Companies House, an increase of 4.6% compared with the previous financial year ending in 2023.

More specifically, there were 890,684 company incorporations in the financial year ending (FYE) 2024, an increase of 11.2% compared with FYE 2023, while there were 663,167 dissolutions, a 13.2% rise compared with the previous year.

Northern Ireland saw the largest increase, proportionately speaking, with a 92.8% rise, followed by Scotland (11.5%) and England & Wales (10.2%).

Earlier this year, Irish News reported that Northern Ireland was the fastest-growing region in the UK for newly registered companies in 2023, with the retail sector being responsible for the largest rise in the number of new firms in the region.

“These new ventures are predominantly small businesses [with an] average annual turnover of £182,000 and an average team size of three people; 46% of them are female-founded,” Mark Crimmins, head of Ulster Bank (which runs a startup accelerator), told Irish News.

More overseas companies are on the register

Meanwhile, the number of overseas companies (companies incorporated outside of the UK with a place of business/branch in the UK through which they carry out their business) grew to 14,299 at the end of FYE 2024, a 4.2% increase from the year before.

The three countries with the most overseas companies on the register were the US, with 2,695 companies (18.8% of all overseas companies on the register), the Channel Islands with 1,912 companies (13.4%), and the Republic of Ireland with 1,274 companies (8.9%).

The three regions/continents with the most overseas companies on the register were Europe (31.8% of overseas companies on the register), the Americas (21.8%) and the UK Crown Dependencies (17.2%).

Companies House statistics showed net increases in overseas companies on the register in all regions. The average age of UK companies on the register is 8.7 years (for both overseas and domestic companies).

The US is, by a large margin, the country with the most overseas limited companies registered in the UK, with a grand total of 2,695 on the UK register, as of 31 March 2024, followed by:

• The Channel Islands (1,912 companies)
• Ireland (1,274)
• The Netherlands (689)
• Germany (611)
• The Isle of Man (552)
• The Cayman Islands (307)
• France (307)
• India (307)
• Australia (278)