Three in five are gone
Of every hundred UK businesses that opened in 2019, about thirty eight were still trading five years later.
Every figure is cited on screen. Company examples are fictional specimens.
Music: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0
Transcript
- 0:00
Of every hundred UK businesses that opened in 2019, about thirty eight were still trading five years later.
- 0:11
That figure gets used to prove two opposite things. That starting a business is reckless, and that Britain is full of quitters. It proves neither. This is simply the normal shape of business ownership.
- 0:28
What is interesting is how unevenly it is spread. In the South West, forty three point five per cent made it to five years. In the West Midlands, thirty point six.
- 0:42
The trade matters even more. Transport and storage has the lowest survival of the main trades. Of the ones that started in Wales in 2019, only fourteen point eight per cent were still going. Roughly one in seven.
- 0:59
Now notice something. That is the same trade with the highest opening rate in the country. Easy to start is not the same as easy to stay in.
- 1:11
A survival rate tells you the odds. The public record tells you who is still open.
About this film
Three in five are gone runs 1:18, read by Imogen and appears on Leadistry's Blog page. The full narration is above in 6 sections, so you can read it instead of watching if that is quicker. Every figure shown on screen comes from the Companies House public record or a named published source, and the companies used as examples are fictional specimens rather than real customers.