Of 1,050 businesses started in Stratford-on-Avon district in 2022, 855 were still trading two years on. ONS figures put that third of 357 UK council areas.
New businesses in Stratford-on-Avon district last longer than almost anywhere else in the UK. Of the 1,050 businesses started in the district in 2022, 855 were still trading two years later. That is 81.4%, against 68.9% across the UK.
The figures come from the Office for National Statistics. They sit behind a ranking published this week by American Express, which named the district the UK’s top “entrepreneurial hotspot”. Development Economics carried out that study for the card company, covering 317 local authority areas. It combined each area’s start-up rate with the share of new firms still trading after two years.
We went back to the ONS tables to check. Both of the district’s headline figures reproduce exactly from the official data.
What the ONS figures show
The ONS Business demography, UK: 2024 tables count a business “birth” when a firm first registers for VAT or PAYE. A firm survives while it stays registered and active. All counts are rounded to the nearest five.
For Stratford-on-Avon district, they show:
- 1,050 businesses started in 2022. 1,015 were still trading after one year, 96.7%.
- 855 were still trading after two years, 81.4%. The UK figure is 68.9%.
- 725 businesses started in 2024. That is about 85 for every 10,000 people aged 16 to 64, against about 73 for the UK.
- 8,305 businesses were active in the district in 2024.
The start-up rate is our calculation. It divides the ONS births by the ONS mid-2024 population estimate for people aged 16 to 64: 85,117 in the district and 43.6 million across the UK.
Third in the UK, first on the mainland
We ranked all 357 council areas in the ONS tables by two-year survival for businesses started in 2022. Stratford-on-Avon comes third. The two places above it are island councils with very few new firms:
- Isles of Scilly, 100% (10 businesses started)
- Orkney Islands, 83.3% (60)
- Stratford-on-Avon, 81.4% (1,050)
- Derbyshire Dales, 80.3% (305)
- Shetland Islands, 80.0% (75)
No other council area with more than 100 new businesses that year did better. The district also started more businesses in 2022 than the other four in the top five put together.
On the start-up rate alone, the district is good rather than exceptional. Its 85 per 10,000 places it 55th of the 357 areas. Wychavon, its Worcestershire neighbour, is higher at about 108. It is the combination of the two that puts Stratford-on-Avon at the top of the American Express list. Uttlesford in Essex and Waverley in Surrey came second and third there.
Well ahead of the rest of Warwickshire
Every other Warwickshire district sits close to the UK figure or below it:
| District | Started in 2022 | Still trading in 2024 | Start-ups per 10,000, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stratford-on-Avon | 1,050 | 81.4% | 85 |
| Warwick | 740 | 68.9% | 75 |
| North Warwickshire | 290 | 67.2% | 61 |
| Rugby | 640 | 66.4% | 78 |
| Nuneaton and Bedworth | 470 | 64.9% | 52 |
| UK | 336,925 | 68.9% | 73 |
One year looked very different
The good result for 2022 follows a poor one. The district recorded 1,260 business births in 2021, far more than in any other recent year. Only 655 of them, 52%, were still trading two years later. That was well below the UK’s 70.4% for the same year.
The ONS tables do not say why 2021 was so unusual here. A batch of short-lived registrations in one year can swing a district’s figures in either direction. That is worth bearing in mind with any one-year ranking.
Business births in the district since 2019:
| Year | Businesses started |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 695 |
| 2020 | 725 |
| 2021 | 1,260 |
| 2022 | 1,050 |
| 2023 | 755 |
| 2024 | 725 |
Births have fallen back since the 2021 peak. The 2024 figure is the same as in 2020.
What it means for you
If you are starting a business here, the odds of still trading after two years are better than in most of the country. The figures do not tell you why. They cover every kind of firm, from sole traders registered for VAT to new limited companies, and they say nothing about size or profit.
The district council runs Venture House, a business centre with starter offices and hot desks. Its start-up advice pages list the free support on offer.
Sources
- ONS, Business demography, UK: 2024, reference tables, Tables 1.1a to 1.1d (births), 3.1d (active businesses) and 5.1c and 5.1d (survival of 2021 and 2022 births).
- ONS mid-year population estimates via Nomis, mid-2024, people aged 16 to 64, for the start-up rate.
- Retail Times, 14 October 2026, for the American Express ranking and its method. We could not reach the American Express release itself.
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