UK health and social work companies in numbers (October 2026)
Key figures compared with the UK
| Measure | This sector | All UK | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active companies | 213,169 | 5,166,057 | 4.1% of UK |
| Median company age (years) | 5.4 | 5.6 | close to UK |
| Incorporated in the last 3 years | 32.2% | 34.0% | close to UK |
| Filing micro-entity accounts | 37.7% | 32.4% | 5.3 pts higher |
| Filing dormant accounts | 6.9% | 10.8% | 3.9 pts lower |
| Accounts overdue | 1.4% | 1.8% | 0.4 pts lower |
| Under a proposal to strike off | 6.6% | 7.4% | 0.8 pts lower |
| In liquidation, administration or receivership | 1.0% | 2.0% | 1.0 pts lower |
| With outstanding charges (secured lending) | 9.7% | 12.1% | 2.4 pts lower |
| Median net assets | £7,011 | £3,113 | 125% higher |
| Negative net assets | 13.7% | 18.8% | 5.1 pts lower |
| Net current liabilities | 26.7% | 36.2% | 9.5 pts lower |
| Median cash at bank | £19k | £10k | 86% higher |
| Cash covers creditors due within a year | 48.5% | 35.3% | 13.2 pts higher |
| Holding £100k or more in cash | 24.4% | 20.3% | 4.1 pts higher |
| Median employees (where stated) | 1 | 1 | close to UK |
Balance sheet measures use each active company's most recent machine-readable (iXBRL) accounts with a period ending in 2024 or later: 157,555 companies here (73.9% of active). Net assets 25th to 75th percentile: £100 to £66k. Cash 25th to 75th percentile: £1,578 to £96k.
What the numbers say
Health and social work companies are mostly clinicians and care providers trading through a company. The largest code is 86900 other human health activities (81,937 live companies), followed by 86220 specialist medical practice (29,514), 86210 general medical practice (23,760) and 86230 dental practice (19,393).
Three differences from the UK average stand out:
- Liquidity: a median current ratio of 1.68 and a cash ratio of 0.95, against 1.19 and 0.50. Only 26.7% have net current liabilities, against 36.2%. Income from the NHS, insurers and patients tends to arrive reliably, and there is little stock to finance.
- Cash and equity: median cash of £18,875 and median net assets of £7,011, against £10,127 and £3,113. Locum doctors, consultants and therapists often keep earnings in the company.
- Fewer dormant companies: 6.9% against 10.8%. A health company is usually formed to start practising straight away.
Negative net assets have barely moved: 13.5% for financial years ending in 2014 and 13.7% in 2025, while the UK figure rose from 16.4% to 18.6%. Where a provider does show negative net assets, treat it as a warning sign, not proof of insolvency, and read our guide to negative net assets.
Residential care is different from the rest of the section. In division 87, 25.9% of companies have outstanding charges and the upper quartile of net assets is £199,985, reflecting care homes that own and borrow against property. When assessing a care home operator, look at its charges and liquidity with the balance sheet ratio calculator, and compare with real estate. For a step-by-step approach, see how to check a UK company.
Share with negative net assets, 2014 to 2025
Share of accounts with net liabilities (total liabilities larger than total assets) by financial year end, for companies on the live register. Dissolved companies are not included because the register no longer lists their industry, so earlier years show survivors. Negative net assets is a warning sign, not proof of insolvency: see what negative net assets means.
Accounts types filed
| Type of last accounts | Share here | Share UK |
|---|---|---|
| Micro-entity | 37.7% | 32.4% |
| Total exemption full | 27.2% | 23.8% |
| No accounts filed yet | 20.4% | 26.0% |
| Dormant | 6.9% | 10.8% |
| Unaudited abridged | 3.6% | 2.9% |
| Small | 1.3% | 1.2% |
| Full (audited) | 1.1% | 1.5% |
| Audit exemption subsidiary | 1.1% | 0.7% |
The type shows how much a company has to disclose. Micro-entity and abridged accounts contain no profit and loss account on the public record. Read more about accounts categories and micro-entities.
Active companies by year of incorporation
Companies incorporated in each year that are still active today. Younger cohorts are larger partly because older ones have been dissolved.
Most common activity codes
| SIC | Activity | Live companies |
|---|---|---|
| 86900 | Other human health activities | 81,937 |
| 86220 | Specialists medical practice activities | 29,514 |
| 86210 | General medical practice activities | 23,760 |
| 86230 | Dental practice activities | 19,393 |
| 88990 | Other social work activities without accommodation n.e.c. | 14,088 |
| 86101 | Hospital activities | 11,295 |
| 87900 | Other residential care activities n.e.c. | 9,259 |
| 88910 | Child day-care activities | 8,413 |
Divisions in this section
| Division | Active companies | Negative net assets | Median cash | Overdue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86 Human health activities | 158,378 | 13.0% | £17k | 1.3% |
| 87 Residential care activities | 27,716 | 16.8% | £35k | 2.2% |
| 88 Social work activities without accommodation | 27,075 | 15.9% | £21k | 1.7% |
Methodology
Industry is the first SIC code each company declares on the Companies House register (snapshot 1 October 2026); the dormant placeholder 99999 is excluded. Status, accounts type and due dates come from the register. Financial measures come from our parse of 37 million iXBRL accounts filed since 2008; values above £100bn are treated as extraction errors. Companies filing paper or PDF accounts are not in the balance sheet figures. Full details: methodology.
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