Industry benchmarksUK industry statistics
How companies in each UK sector compare: size of the sector, age, how many file micro-entity or dormant accounts, how many are late, and what their balance sheets look like. Computed from the full Companies House register (5,704,711 live companies) and 37 million iXBRL accounts. Data as of 1 October 2026.
| Sector (SIC section) | Active companies | Median age, years | Negative net assets | Median net assets | Median cash | Accounts overdue |
|---|
| G Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles | 653,899 | 3.4 | 22.1% | £2,295 | £12k | 1.7% |
| M Professional, scientific and technical activities | 626,454 | 6.9 | 14.7% | £5,028 | £12k | 1.7% |
| L Real estate activities | 606,940 | 5.2 | 25.7% | £2,980 | £6,266 | 1.4% |
| F Construction | 503,123 | 6 | 16.8% | £7,457 | £13k | 1.6% |
| J Information and communication | 435,543 | 5 | 19.5% | £2,752 | £12k | 1.8% |
| N Administrative and support service activities | 349,258 | 7.2 | 18.6% | £3,598 | £13k | 2.2% |
| I Accommodation and food service activities | 248,796 | 3.1 | 28.5% | £1,538 | £10k | 2.1% |
| K Financial and insurance activities | 218,846 | 4.8 | 14.4% | £9,517 | £10k | 3.3% |
| Q Human health and social work activities | 213,169 | 5.4 | 13.7% | £7,011 | £19k | 1.4% |
| C Manufacturing | 210,821 | 7.5 | 18.7% | £8,638 | £29k | 2.1% |
| S Other service activities | 208,255 | 5.9 | 19.7% | £2,052 | £6,741 | 1.7% |
| H Transportation and storage | 131,767 | 4.1 | 18.3% | £2,466 | £7,511 | 1.8% |
| T Activities of households as employers and producers for own use | 125,750 | 16.5 | 4.9% | £9 | £761 | 1.1% |
| R Arts, entertainment and recreation | 121,574 | 6.3 | 21.9% | £2,784 | £12k | 1.7% |
| P Education | 104,984 | 4.6 | 19.0% | £1,617 | £8,274 | 1.5% |
| A Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 41,724 | 9.5 | 19.0% | £34k | £28k | 1.2% |
| D Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply | 16,516 | 7.5 | 23.4% | £2,499 | £25k | 5.8% |
| E Water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation | 16,069 | 6.4 | 16.1% | £11k | £29k | 2.0% |
| O Public administration and defence | 8,900 | 3.6 | 14.1% | £1,655 | £5,890 | 1.6% |
| B Mining and quarrying | 7,414 | 9.6 | 14.1% | £11k | £26k | 4.9% |
| U Activities of extraterritorial organisations | 546 | 12.9 | 11.1% | £2,832 | £6,304 | 4.0% |
| All UK companies | 5,166,057 | 5.6 | 18.8% | £3,113 | £10k | 1.8% |
Each sector page has a key figures table against the UK average, the trend in negative net assets since 2014, accounts types, the most common activity codes, its divisions and a CSV download. Figures are CC BY 4.0. How the numbers are built: methodology.