Northern Ireland Business Demography Statistics 2023

Date published: 6 February 2025

The bulletin, including interactive charts, can be accessed on the NISRA website.

The data are sourced from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a register of all Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) registered businesses in the UK. The IDBR covers most of the economy including the key industrial sectors. It does not hold details on those small businesses that fall below the VAT threshold (£85,000 in 2023) or do not operate a PAYE scheme.

The demography statistics detailed in this output are consistent with the UK demography statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and allows for international comparisons. These statistics are based on businesses registered in Northern Ireland only and exclude Agriculture and the public sector.  The number of businesses with an active VAT and/or PAYE registration in Northern Ireland throughout 2023 was just under 65,000. These registrations accounted for just over 2% of the total active, registered UK business population, estimated to be 2.9million for the same period.

Business demography statistics measure changes in these registrations over the calendar year. New business registrations are referred to as births and business de-registrations are referred to as deaths. A business birth does not necessarily equate to a new business starting and a business death does not necessarily equate to a business closing.

The ONS produces the UK Business Demography report. 

The most recent data was published on 18 November 2024. 

Key points
Key points from the Northern Ireland Business Demography bulletin are listed below.

There were 5,370 business births in Northern Ireland during 2023, a small decrease of 0.3% on the previous year.

• The business birth rate (number of births as a proportion of active businesses) in Northern Ireland was 8.3% in 2023, which is the same as 2022, and is at the lowest level since 2012.
• The birth rate in England (11.1%) was the lowest it has been since 2010, with the rate in Wales being the lowest since 2012.

There were 5,110 business deaths in Northern Ireland in 2023, a decrease of 1.2% on the previous year.

• The business death rate in Northern Ireland (7.9%) has fluctuated between 6.6% and 8.0% since 2014 and is 1.2 percentage points (pps) below the series high in 2012.
• Business death rates, when compared with 2022, showed decreases across all four regions within the UK, the first time this has happened since 2018.

The number of business births was greater than the number of deaths for nine district council areas.

• Business birth rates increased for five of the eleven district councils in Northern Ireland in the year to December 2023. Mid and East Antrim had the highest business birth rate (10.3%), whilst Fermanagh and Omagh, and Mid Ulster shared the lowest (7.1%).
• Business death rates decreased across seven district council areas over the same twelve-month period. Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, and Lisburn and Castlereagh City saw increases of more than one per cent with Fermanagh and Omagh, and Newry, Mourne and Down seeing small increases. Mid Ulster had the lowest death rate (6.1%) across the region for the seventh consecutive year.

The business birth rate is highest for Business administration and support services with the death rate being highest for the Transport and storage industry.

• Business birth rates have decreased for seven broad industry groups.
• Transport and storage (including postal) saw the largest decline in the number of business births, down by 215 businesses compared with 2022, amounting to a decrease of 5.1 pps in the birth rate. This industry had witnessed significant increases in the number of businesses since 2019, which coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic and the need for home delivery services.
• The business death rate was greater than the birth rate for five of the fifteen broad industry groups, including Transport and storage (including postal) and Finance and insurance.