What proportion of new UK companies actually trade?
Updated 15 September 2026 · by Matt Vallis, Salenovo · numbers from the Companies House public register
About a third. Of the 1.2 million companies incorporated in the UK between January 2022 and June 2023, 32.2% were trading when we checked three to five years later, 58.6% had already been dissolved, and the rest were dormant or being struck off. Of the 14,543 formed in the week of 7 September–13 September 2026, expect roughly 5,261 to become trading businesses.
What "trading" means here
A company counts as trading when it is still active and has filed accounts that are not dormant accounts. That is the strictest definition available from the public record: a company that was set up, did some business and closed within eighteen months would not count, and neither would one that is genuinely trading but has not yet filed. It is the right definition for anyone who wants to sell to new businesses, because it is the ones that survive to file accounts that buy accountancy, insurance, premises and software.
The figures, by cohort
| Companies incorporated | How many | Dissolved | Trading | Dormant | Strike-off / insolvency | Age when checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2022 – Jun 2023 (six quarters) | 1.22m (official) | 58.6% | 32.2% | 6.4% | 2.7% | 3.2–4.7 years |
| March 2022 (every company) | 77,326 | 58.9% | 32.3% | 5.4% | 3.2% | 4.5 years |
| March 2024 (every company) | 80,063 | 50.9% | 35.0% | 9.8% | 3.9% | 2.5 years |
Source: Companies House public register, checked September 2026. The March 2024 cohort is younger, so more of it is still dormant and less has been dissolved; by the time it is four years old it will look like March 2022.
Why so many never trade
Three reasons account for most of it. Some companies are formed speculatively — a name reserved, a plan that did not happen — and dissolved a year later when the first confirmation statement comes due. Some are vehicles rather than businesses: a company that holds one property, a personal holding company, a dormant subsidiary. And a measurable share are formed in bulk at a handful of addresses and kept dormant; at the worst of these addresses fewer than 5% of companies ever trade.
Can you tell in advance?
Partly, and better than chance. Companies with two or more founding directors, a director with years of previous experience, a distinctive name whose domain already resolves, and an address that is neither a mass-formation agent nor a shelf-company cluster trade far more often than the average. Salenovo's model turns those signals into five bands: on companies it had never seen, band A went on to trade 60% of the time and band E 9%, against the base rate of about a third. The method page has the full results and what is deliberately left out of the model.
What it means if you sell to new businesses
If you write to every new company in your area, two-thirds of the letters go to companies that will never need you. Ranking them first roughly doubles the hit rate of the same effort. The use-case pages work through the arithmetic for accountants, brokers, agencies and suppliers.
Questions people also ask
What percentage of new UK companies fail?
Within about four years, 58.9% of the companies formed in March 2022 had been dissolved. Not all of those failed in the everyday sense — many never started — but only 32.3% were trading.
How long does a new company take to start trading?
Most trading companies file their first non-dormant accounts about 21 months after incorporation, which is the first hard evidence on the public record. Earlier signs — a website, a registered food premises, an ICO registration, a VAT number on the site — appear in the first weeks and months.
Are companies formed through formation agents less likely to trade?
As a group, yes: companies at mass-formation-agent addresses trade about 28% of the time in our cohorts, against 35–37% overall, and a few shelf-company clusters are below 5%. Individual agents vary a great deal.
Where do these figures come from?
The Companies House public register: every company incorporated in the cohort months, followed through to its status and filings in September 2026. Nothing is sampled; the counts are of every company.