From our search, there were 15,234 high-growth companies in the UK — totalling a massive £884b in turnover.
England had 13,467 high-growth companies, which equates to 88.4% of all the high-growth companies we looked at. England’s total turnover for high-growth companies was £794b.
Scotland followed in second place, with 916 high-growth companies (6% of all high-growth companies in the UK) and a total turnover of £51b.
With 2.7% of all high-growth companies was Northern Ireland. It had 410 high-growth companies, less than Wales (441) but had a higher turnover of £22b. Wales’ total turnover was £16b meaning it came in at the bottom of the UK countries.
The UK’s top industries
One key takeaway from our analysis is the recurrence of the same popular industries across each nation. Coming out in the top spot across all four countries is, distribution and wholesale, which is no surprise as the UK has a strong distribution network.
Property development and construction came in second place for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — and third place for England.
Manufacturing was high on the list for all countries as well. It came in third place for Wales, and fourth place for Northern Ireland — and while it didn’t make the top four places for England or Scotland, it still had a high proportion of representation. In England, 7.5% of high-growth companies were in the manufacturing sector, and 7.8% were in Scotland.
Then we start to see a bit more disparity between countries. Application software came in second place for England with a very significant 11.2%. There were also high numbers in England for online retailing.
Northern Ireland had a large proportion of companies (12.4%) in the tradespeople and trade services sector. It also saw a high percentage for repair, maintenance and servicing (10.5%), and parts and components (9.8%).
Meanwhile, Scotland had high percentages in heavy equipment and machinery, and civil engineering at 8.2% and 8.1% respectively.
In Wales, repair, maintenance and servicing and manufacturing both took up 8.8% of high-growth companies. With cars, motorcycles and other road vehicles, securing 8.6% of high-growth Welsh companies.
