Northern Ireland Inter-Departmental Business Register Statistics 2024

The latest Northern Ireland Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) statistics were released this morning by NISRA.

Economic Output Statistics

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

The data are sourced from the IDBR, which is a register of all Value Added Tax (VAT) and/or Pay As You Earn (PAYE) registered businesses in the UK.   

Key points

Key points from the 2024 Northern Ireland Inter-Departmental Business Register bulletin are listed below.

The number of businesses operating in Northern Ireland increased by 1.0% over the year to March 2024.

• The number of VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses operating in Northern Ireland is estimated to have risen by 810 (1.0%) to 80,045. This marked the tenth consecutive year of increase following a period of decline from 2008 to 2014.

The majority of businesses in Northern Ireland were micro-sized businesses.

• In March 2024, most businesses (89% or 71,425) in Northern Ireland were micro-sized businesses (less than 10 employees). Just over 2% (1,730) of businesses had 50 or more employees.
   
• Four in ten businesses in Northern Ireland (40% or 32,060) had a turnover of less than £100,000, whilst just 13% (10,095 businesses) had a turnover in excess of £1 million.

The number of businesses in the Construction sector (11,375) is the highest it has been since 2010.

• The Service sector, which remained the largest in Northern Ireland, accounted for 55% of all businesses and grew slightly by 0.9% (395) over the year to March 2024. The number of businesses within Production saw a decline for the second consecutive year, falling slightly by 0.5% (30 businesses).

• Despite the decline in businesses within the Production sector since 2022, there has been a 26% increase in businesses within the same sector since 2014. There have also been large increases observed within Agriculture (12%), Construction (24%), and Services (19%) over the same ten-year period.

The geographical spread of businesses across the 11 district council areas remained relatively unchanged, with Belfast (14%) making up the highest proportion and, Antrim and Newtownabbey (5.4%) the lowest.

• Mid Ulster saw the largest increase in the number of registered businesses operating in the area (175 or 1.8%) over the year to 2024, whilst Lisburn and Castlereagh saw the largest decrease (85 or 1.6%) over the same period.

• Belfast remained the district council area with the most businesses (11,445), accounting for 14% of all VAT and/or PAYE registered businesses operating in Northern Ireland in 2024. The most recent Business Register and Employment Survey (2022) showed that 30% of all employee jobs across Northern Ireland were based in the Belfast City Council area.

Of the 80,045 businesses operating in Northern Ireland, 2,270 (2.8%) were non-NI owned.

• The number of registered businesses operating in Northern Ireland, owned by an enterprise registered outside of Northern Ireland, accounted for 2.8% of the business population and one-quarter (25%) of employees.

• Non-NI owned businesses increased by 20% (or 380 businesses) over the five years to 2024. The total number of employees working within these enterprises also saw a large increase (10% or 17,895) over the same period.

Notes to editors: 

1. The IDBR covers most of the economy including the Agriculture, Production, Construction and Service sectors. It does not hold details on those small businesses that fall below the VAT threshold (£85,000 in 2023/24) or do not operate a PAYE scheme. 

2. Many self-employed workers will not be included on the IDBR. Latest figures published by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), which include an estimate of the number of unregistered businesses in the private sector, indicate that at the start of 2023 the number of unregistered businesses in Northern Ireland was 47,295 (53,680 in 2022). Further information is available on gov.uk. 

3. A snapshot of the IDBR is taken each year in March to produce statistics on the number of businesses operating in Northern Ireland. These statistics are presented in the Northern Ireland IDBR bulletin, and associated tables include industry, size, legal status, location, and foreign ownership data. Information on foreign owned businesses operating in the UK is obtained by the Office for National Statistics from Dun and Bradstreet, a market information company.

4. The full Northern Ireland Inter-Departmental Business Register statistics bulletin is available on the NISRA website.

5. The most recent Northern Ireland Business Demography report, which looks at business registrations and de-registrations on the IDBR, is available on the NISRA website.

6. Feedback is welcomed and should be addressed to:

Responsible statistician:

Neil Mulhern,

Economic & Labour Market Statistics Branch (ELMS)

neil.mulhern@nisra.gov.uk or Tel: 028 90255196.

7. Follow NISRA on Twitter / X - @NISRA

8. For media enquiries contact the Department for the Economy Press Office at pressoffice@economy-ni.gov.uk

9. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays.  The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

10. To keep up to date with news from the Department for the Economy you can follow us on the following social media channels:

• X – @Economy_NI
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