B&NES Business Births, Closures and Survival: The ONS 2024 Figures
B&NES recorded 765 registered business births and 755 provisional deaths in 2024. The survival figures follow separate groups of businesses over different periods.
Published
Bath and North East Somerset recorded 765 registered business births and 755 provisional business deaths in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s national statistics office. Those closely balanced totals describe businesses entering and leaving the statistical population. To understand survival, you need a different comparison: businesses born in the same year, followed over a specified period.[3]
The Figures Cover the Whole B&NES Authority
Every business count here covers Bath and North East Somerset, identified in the workbook by local-authority code E06000022. The ONS area profile identifies it as a unitary authority and lists places including Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock alongside Bath neighbourhoods. These figures cannot be used as Bath city totals or as a measure of its city centre.[2][3]
That boundary matters when interpreting a headline about local closures. An authority-wide enterprise count cannot tell you how many shopfronts closed in central Bath, or which neighbourhood experienced the greatest change.[2][3]
Business Births and Deaths Were Closely Balanced in 2024
The workbook records 8,770 active registered enterprises across B&NES in 2024. Our analysis of the ONS Business Demography 2024 workbook puts births at approximately 8.72% of that active population and provisional deaths at approximately 8.61%. Both calculations use the same authority, observation year and denominator.[3]
| B&NES Measure | 2024 Figure | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Active registered enterprises | 8,770 | Published count |
| Business births | 765 | Published count |
| Business deaths | 755 | Published provisional count |
| Approximate birth rate | 8.72% | 765 ÷ 8,770 × 100 |
| Approximate death rate | 8.61% | 755 ÷ 8,770 × 100 |
The published birth count exceeds the death count by 10. Treat that as a narrow difference between two rounded measures. It does not establish that the active business population grew by exactly 10 during the year, because the active total includes enterprises with turnover or employment at any point in 2024 rather than measuring a single year-end position.[3]
All three enterprise counts are control-rounded to a base of five. The two rates above are our calculations from those published counts, rounded to two decimal places. Their extra decimal places do not make the underlying counts more exact.[3]
Compare Survival Over the Same Length of Time
Of the 855 B&NES enterprises born in 2023, 800 survived into 2024. The workbook’s published one-year survival percentage rounds to 93.6%. Here, the denominator is the original birth cohort of 855 enterprises, rather than the authority’s entire active business population.[3]
For a comparison over the same follow-up period, the 2019 cohort had a one-year survival rate of 95.4%, with 835 of its original 875 enterprises surviving into 2020. The table compares the same measure at the same business age, although the cohorts experienced different calendar years.[3]
| B&NES Cohort Measure | Businesses Born in 2019 | Businesses Born in 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Original birth cohort | 875 | 855 |
| One-year follow-up year | 2020 | 2024 |
| Enterprises surviving one year | 835 | 800 |
| Published one-year survival percentage, rounded | 95.4% | 93.6% |
A longer follow-up gives a different view of the 2019 group. By 2024, 390 of those original 875 enterprises had survived five years, equivalent to a published survival percentage of 44.6% when rounded to one decimal place. Comparing that directly with the 2023 cohort’s 93.6% would mix five years of follow-up with one year.[3]
The 2023 cohort’s later survival fields are marked with colons in this edition. Its one-year result cannot establish how many will survive five years, and the difference between the two cohorts’ early results does not explain what caused it.[3]
What the ONS Means by Birth, Death and Survival
An active business has turnover or employment at some point during the reference year. A birth is an enterprise present in that year’s active population but absent from the previous two years. These definitions follow changes in registered enterprise activity, so they should not be read as a diary of premises opening and closing.[3]
For a death, the ONS checks whether an enterprise active in one year is absent in both subsequent years. To publish earlier estimates, it adjusts deaths for the latest two observation years to allow for possible reactivations. The 2024 death figure is provisional and remains subject to revision.[3]
Survival means continued activity through employment or turnover during the follow-up year. It does not establish profitability, increased sales or additional jobs. When using the survival table for business planning, keep those unanswered questions separate from the narrower question of whether enterprises remained active.[3]
The Edition and Calculation Method
These historical observations come from the 2024 edition released on 20 November 2025, using the workbook available on 20 October 2026. The dataset page records a correction on 15 January 2026 concerning accidentally included data in Table 7.1d. The observations discussed here describe 2024 and the stated earlier birth cohorts.[1][3]
The 2024 counts use the E06000022 authority row in Tables 1.1d, 2.1d and 3.1d. Survival figures use the corresponding authority rows in Tables 5.1a and 5.1e. Birth and death rates divide the relevant rounded count by 8,770 and multiply by 100. Survival percentages retain the workbook’s published values, displayed to one decimal place. Any future comparison should keep the authority boundary, cohort and follow-up period consistent, while allowing for revisions to provisional deaths.[3]
Sources and checks
These sources were used for this article. Availability, prices and service details can change after the stated check date.
- Business demography, UK
- Office for National Statistics
Checked 20 October 2026.
The 2024 edition was released on 20 November 2025. The dataset page records a correction on 15 January 2026 affecting Table 7.1d. The dataset covers annual business births, deaths and survival by geography and industrial classification.
- Bath and North East Somerset (E06000022) - ONS
Checked 20 October 2026.
Bath and North East Somerset is a unitary authority. Its geography includes Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Radstock alongside Bath neighbourhoods. The authority geography must be distinguished from Bath city and its city centre.
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/datasets/businessdemographyreferencetable/current/businessdemographyexceltables2024.xlsx
Checked 20 October 2026.
The B&NES authority code is E06000022. B&NES recorded 765 enterprise births, 755 provisional enterprise deaths and 8,770 active enterprises in 2024. Counts are control-rounded to a base of five. Our calculated 2024 birth and death rates are approximately 8.72% and 8.61%, using 8,770 active enterprises as the denominator. The rounded 2024 birth count exceeds the rounded death count by 10. The 2019 cohort comprised 875 births, with 835 surviving one year and 390 surviving five years. The published 2019 cohort survival percentages round to 95.4% after one year and 44.6% after five years. The 2023 cohort comprised 855 births, with 800 surviving into 2024 and a published one-year survival percentage rounding to 93.6%. Later survival fields for the 2023 cohort contain colons in this edition. The retained workbook Notes define activity through turnover or employment, births through absence from the previous two annual populations, and deaths through absence from the following two annual populations. The retained workbook Notes identify deaths for the latest two observation years as adjusted for reactivations, provisional and subject to revision. The retained workbook Notes define survival through continued employment or turnover activity, without measuring profitability or growth.