How many (a) small and (b) medium enterprises there are per 10,000 adults in Scotland, and what information it has on how this compares to …

There are various ways that the business base can be broken down by size, for example in terms of the number of employees in the business, the turnover of the business, the rateable value of non-domestic properties, etc. There are two main sources of statistics on Scotland’s business population in terms of business size according to the number of employees in the business – the Scottish Government’s Businesses in Scotland publication and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) UK Business Population Estimates publication. More information from these publications are shown below. However, there are other ways to compare the business base in Scotland and England
- for example in terms of the rateable value of non-domestic properties. Comparing the 1 April 2020 Scottish non-domestic valuation roll and the 18 March 2020 English non-domestic valuation roll shows that 77% of properties on the Scottish non-domestic valuation roll had a rateable value of £15,000 or less, this compares to 71% of properties on the English non-domestic valuation roll.
With regard to statistics on the business population in terms of business size according to the number of employees in the business
- the Scottish Government Businesses in Scotland publication includes this size breakdown and this is for all businesses operating in Scotland. Whereas, the BEIS UK Business Population Estimates publication allocates businesses to Scotland only where the business is based (has its UK registered office) in Scotland.
Table 1 provides a breakdown of all private sector businesses in Scotland by business size – sourced from the Scottish Government’s Businesses in Scotland 2019 publication. Whereas Table 2 provides a summary of data from the BEIS UK Business Population Estimates 2019 – where businesses are allocated to Scotland only where the business is based (has its UK registered office) in Scotland. These summary tables provide key statistics, to show the different approaches to defining Scotland’s business population, but more detailed information can be obtained from the links below:
The latest Scottish Government Businesses in Scotland publication is available at:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2019/
The latest BEIS UK Business Population Estimates publication is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/business-population-estimates-2019
The BEIS publication provides data for Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales and the UK as a whole.
Table 1: Private sector businesses in Scotland, by business size – all businesses operating in Scotland

All businesses operating in Scotland
Business Size ? (number of employees UK-wide)
Businesses ? (number of)
Businesses ? (share)
Businesses ? (per 10k adults)
Small (0 employees)
247,060
69.3%
547
Small (1-9 employees)
86,365
24.2%
191
Small (10-49 employees)
16,715
4.7%
37
Medium (50 to 249 employees)
3,985
1.1%
9
Large (250+ employees)
2,425
0.7%
5
All
356,550
100.0%
789
All Small (0-49 employees)
350,140
98.2%
775
All Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (0-249 employees)
354,125
99.3%
784
SME Employers (1-249 employees)
107,065
30.0%
237
All Employers
109,490
30.7%
242

Source: Businesses in Scotland 2019, Scottish Government
Notes:
1. These figures relate to businesses both registered for VAT and/or PAYE as well as those unregistered.
2. Business size is based on the number of employees that the business employs across the UK.
3. These figures are for all private sector jobs in Scotland.
4. Figures include charities.
5. Data are as at March 2019.

Table 2: Private sector businesses, by business size – Scotland based businesses
Businesses based in Scotland
All UK Businesses
Business Size (number of employees UK-wide)
Businesses ?(number of)
Businesses ? (share)
No. ?(per10k adults)
Businesses ?(number of)
Businesses ? (share)
No.(per10k adults)
Small (0 employees)