It is the aim to publish statistics on business stocks, and sites for Scotland, Scottish Local Authority Areas, and other geographical dimensions as soon as possible after the release of the Scottish Government's Businesses in Scotland publication, which is published each year in early November.
Businesses in Scotland data is produced from an extract taken from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) recording the position of units at March of the reference year.
For information on quality measures, please see [Businesses in Scotland - Methodology]( https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2024/pages/methodology-notes/).
Data can be compared between different industries, legal status, local authority areas and to look at trends over time. Note 'Registered - Private Sector' in the legal status refers to all businesses that are not defined as Central and Local government. Also, employee sizeband type (Scotland or UK) refers to the number of employees that the business employs in Scotland only or across the UK. For comparisons with other UK regions, business stock estimates for the UK and all regions of the UK (including Scotland) are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). A key difference between the UK series for Scotland and the Businesses in Scotland publication estimates is that Businesses in Scotland data includes all businesses that operate in Scotland regardless of where the business is based. There are other differences between the publications, and for these please see [Businesses in Scotland - Methodology](https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2024/pages/methodology-notes/).
For other tables, commentary and more methodology please see the [Businesses in Scotland - Methodology](https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2024/pages/methodology-notes/) website.
Number of VAT/PAYE registered stocks and sites operating in Scotland by region of ownership.
Any cell which is blank contains confidential data. This is data which has been withheld from publication in order that no information relating to an individual business is disclosed. Caution should therefore be exercised if summary data is calculated; it may include blank cells in which case it will not be a true representation of industry or area totals.
For information on quality management, please see [Businesses in Scotland - Methodology]( https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2024/pages/methodology-notes/).
Business Stocks and Sites by Region of Ownership
Estimates about the number of VAT/PAYE registered businesses (stocks) and sites operating in Scotland, broken down by various groupings including industry sector, business size, and region of ownership are produced by Scottish Government within the Businesses in Scotland publication. The Businesses in Scotland publication data are largely sourced from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR is maintained by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and is a database of all registered businesses operating in the UK i.e. businesses that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE. Statistics from the Businesses in Scotland publication are used to provide insight into the characteristics of Scotland's business stock, and how Scotland's business stock has changed over time. The estimates also include information about business employment and turnover (£ millions). The function of these data is to act as 'auxiliary variables' that can be used to (i) classify businesses by employee/turnover size band and (ii) calculate shares of employment and turnover across industrial sectors, local areas, business sizes etc. The nature of the underlying processes used to update these variables on the IDBR means that direct comparisons made using the absolute values are less reliable. Note the estimates do not include turnover information for financial and insurance enterprises as it is not available on a comparable basis. A business (business stock) can be defined as the smallest combination of legal units (generally based on VAT and/or PAYE records) that is an organisational unit producing goods or services, which benefits from a certain degree of autonomy in decision-making, especially for the allocation of its current resources. Note a business carries out one or more activities at one or more locations. Businesses are counted only once in Scotland-level estimates or once each in each of the geographical areas. A local unit (business site) is a business or part thereof (e.g. a workshop, factory, warehouse, office, mine or depot) situated in a geographically identified place. Within Businesses in Scotland, business ownership is defined as:\tUK (Scotland based); UK (Rest of the UK (RUK) based); Abroad. Country of ownership is either UK or Abroad (outside the UK). Business country of ownership is determined by the nationality of the ultimate parent of the business (i.e. the institutional unit, proceeding up a business' chain of control, which is not controlled by another institutional unit). Where control of the business is shared, country of ownership is determined by the country of residence of the majority ultimate owner. Enterprise (business) groups with foreign ownership are identified using data provided by Dun & Bradstreet. All businesses that do not belong to an enterprise (business) group, and are therefore not under the control of another institutional unit, are classified as UK-owned. The estimates also include one National Indicator: 'High growth businesses'. The high growth business stock count is the basis of the Scotland Performs National Indicator: 'High growth businesses'. We defined a high growth business as a business with 10+ employees in the base year (x - 3) exhibiting an average of 20% growth over three years in terms of turnover. In practice, average annualised growth of 20% per annum over three years would be equal to 72.8% growth from year x - 3 to year x. More detailed information can be found on the [Businesses in Scotland]( https://www.gov.scot/publications/businesses-in-scotland-2024/) website.
In general, the figures for registered businesses should be final and should not be revised in future, since they are based on a snapshot in time from the IDBR which cannot change. However sometimes, when quality assuring the data for the latest year, errors in terms of the industry classification applied to businesses may come to light in which case we may correct the erroneous business classifications in previous years.
Data file for Business Stocks and Sites by Region of Ownership