Official Statistics

Number of exporting registered businesses in the UK, 2016 to 2022

Published 4 October 2024

1. Headline metrics

1.1 Table 1: Number of exporting businesses: all registered businesses, 2016 to 2022

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021r	2022
Number of registered exporters	243,000	273,000	268,000	278,000	300,000	278,000	327,000
Number of registered businesses	2,542,235	2,656,275	2,656,690	2,705,680	2,736,995	2,752,630	2,755,255
% exporters	9.6%	10.3%	10.1%	10.3%	10.9%	10.1%	11.9%

Notes for table 1:

• r = revised

These estimates are based on survey data sources developed to provide the best estimates at a point in time. Changes over time therefore have an additional degree of uncertainty. Care should be taken when comparing movements over time as small increases or decreases could be due to the volatility of the figures caused by underlying changes to the business population.

1.2 Table 2: Number of exporting businesses: Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) registered businesses, 2016 to 2022

	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021r	2022
Number of registered SME exporters	239,000	269,000	264,000	274,000	296,000	274,000	323,000
Number of registered SME businesses	2,533,870	2,647,830	2,648,010	2,696,795	2,727,960	2,743,815	2,746,435
% SME exporters	9.5%	10.2%	10.0%	10.2%	10.8%	10.0%	11.8%

Notes for table 2:

• r = revised

• An SME is a business with fewer than 250 employees.

These estimates are based on survey data sources developed to provide the best estimates at a point in time. Changes over time therefore have an additional degree of uncertainty. Care should be taken when comparing movements over time as small increases or decreases could be due to the volatility of the figures caused by underlying changes to the business population.

1.3 Data explanatory notes 

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) publish estimates of the number and proportion of exporting registered businesses in Great Britain (GB) and Northern Ireland (NI) respectively. However, no estimate is currently published for the United Kingdom (UK) as a whole, and the estimates for GB and NI exclude some sectors of the economy, most notably the financial sector.

This Department for Business and Trade (DBT) release uses ONS and NISRA data to provide estimates covering all business sectors in the UK between 2016 and 2022, which is the most recent year available for all the different sources used. ONS included a sample re-optimisation in the estimates from 2016 onwards and therefore there is a discontinuity between 2015 and 2016. Because of this, DBT has not produced estimates of exporters prior to 2016. 

Estimates for 2021 for Great Britain were revised by ONS in their exporters and importers release published in June 2024, and these revisions have been carried through into this DBT release. 

1.4 Sources 

The ONS publication UK Business: Activity, Size and Location provides information on the size of the total business population by size of business and location. It includes all businesses registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay as You Earn (PAYE). This provides data on the total number of registered businesses and the total number of registered SME businesses in each year. An SME is a business with fewer than 250 employees. In our analysis we have defined a business using the following legal statuses: Company, Sole Proprietor, Partnership, and Non-profit Body or Mutual Association. 

The ONS dataset Annual Business Survey exporters and importers provides information on registered businesses exporting goods and/or services in Great Britain by various characteristics including size. This information comes from the ONS Annual Business Survey (ABS) which does not cover the financial sector, medical and dental practice activities, and part of the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector. The release reports that in 2022 11.6% of GB businesses in the relevant sectors and 11.5% of SME businesses are exporters. 

The NISRA data portal provides access to information on registered businesses exporting goods and/or services in Northern Ireland. This information comes from the Northern Ireland Annual Business Inquiry (NIABI) which covers the same sectors as the ONS survey. This tells us that in 2022 19.7% of NI businesses in the relevant sectors and 19.6% of SME NI businesses are exporters. 

1.5 Estimation methodology 

The main assumption made to produce these estimates is that the proportion of exporters in the missing sectors is the same as that in the sectors which are covered in the ABS and NIABI. 

The estimates were produced using the following steps: 

• calculating the total number of exporters in the UK non-financial sectors by summing the numbers published in the ABS and NIABI 

• calculating the difference between the number of enterprises in sectors covered by the ABS and NIABI and the total number of enterprises in the UK from the ONS UK Business publication. This showed that the ABS and NIABI sectors accounted for between 92% and 95% of the total business population in the years included 

• uprating the total number of exporters calculated at step 1 to include the missing percentage identified for each year at step 2 

• repeating these calculations for SMEs only 

1.6 Quality information 

In order to produce these estimates, we have assumed that the proportion of exporting businesses in the missing sectors is the same as that in the sectors which are included in the ABS and NIABI. This means that this element of the estimate is less robust than that which comes directly from the surveys and from the UK Business publication. We have done this because we have no information on which to base a better estimate – there are no alternative sources of this information. This is why we have marked this release as official statistics in development. 

Estimates from ABS and NIABI are survey-based central estimates (with confidence intervals) and are not exact administrative counts. As such, any significance (statistical or otherwise) attached to annual change must be appropriately considered. Information on the survey methodology and quality of estimates are available for both the ABS and NIABI.  

The ABS Technical Report provides detailed information on the sectors currently excluded from the survey in section 3.1 and includes information on sectors included and excluded from the survey over time in annex C. The finance sector was removed from the survey in 2008 as it was no longer required following a change to the European Union Structural Business Statistics Regulation.  

Quality and methodology information is also available for the UK Business release, which is based on a comprehensive register (the Inter-departmental Business Register (IDBR) of all VAT and PAYE registered businesses rather than a survey. Businesses with no employees and which operate below the VAT registration threshold are not included on the IDBR and so any of these businesses which export are not included in these estimates. 

We have provided estimates up to 2022 because this is the most recent year for which data is available in all the sources which we have used. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economy from 2020 onwards, due to lockdown measures being introduced to mitigate its spread and prolonged periods of business closures. It also affected response rates to business surveys including ABS and NIABI, and ONS warn that 2020 estimates are more likely to be influenced by extreme values and variability taking place in the population. In addition, the UK left the European Union on 31 December 2020 which may also have affected exports data. 

We have started our estimates in 2016 because an Annual Business Survey (ABS) sample re-optimisation was included in the estimates from 2016 onwards. This was last carried out in 2016 to improve the efficiency of the ABS sample, estimation and reduce sample variability as part of the regular process to improve estimates. This re-optimisation led to a discontinuity between 2015 and 2016 within small and medium sized businesses (those with fewer than 250 employment). Therefore, users should not make year-on-year comparisons between 2015 and 2016. 

1.7 Further information 

This publication was produced by the Statistics and Data Team. If you have any enquiries about the content, please contact statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk.