UK Business Local Market Gap Finder
How crowded is your trade in your area? Pick a kind of business and a place. See how many business sites it has for every 100,000 residents, how that compares with the UK, and how it has changed since 2019.
- Free, no email needed
- 32 kinds of business
- 212 UK council areas
- Official ONS figures, collected 10 November 2026
Loading the figures.
Where this kind of business is thinnest
The ten areas with the fewest sites per 100,000 residents, then the five with the most. Areas with fewer than 10 sites are left out, because the ONS (Office for National Statistics) rounds every count to the nearest 5.
| Area | Sites, 2026 | Per 100,000 residents | Compared with UK | Change since 2019 |
|---|
Every kind of business in this area
All 32 kinds of business for the area you picked, thinnest first. A row far below the UK figure is a place to look harder. It is not proof of a gap.
| Kind of business | Sites, 2026 | Per 100,000 residents | Compared with UK | Change since 2019 |
|---|
UK business sites by trade, 2019 and 2026
Across the UK, 24 of these 32 kinds of business have more sites than in 2019 and 8 have fewer. Gyms grew fastest, from 4,600 sites to 7,300. Accountants fell furthest, from 37,075 to 33,125.
| Kind of business | UK sites, 2019 | UK sites, 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gyms | 4,600 | 7,300 | Up 58.7% |
| Glaziers | 2,935 | 4,220 | Up 43.8% |
| Window cleaners | 2,030 | 2,890 | Up 42.4% |
| Roofers | 9,495 | 13,040 | Up 37.3% |
| Care homes | 11,665 | 14,745 | Up 26.4% |
| Cafes and unlicensed restaurants | 30,135 | 37,565 | Up 24.7% |
| Cleaning companies | 26,340 | 32,820 | Up 24.6% |
| Plumbers and heating engineers | 39,045 | 48,500 | Up 24.2% |
| Landscape gardeners | 19,610 | 24,150 | Up 23.2% |
| Takeaways | 40,170 | 49,360 | Up 22.9% |
| Portrait photographers | 1,270 | 1,535 | Up 20.9% |
| Hairdressers and beauty salons | 44,990 | 53,640 | Up 19.2% |
| Dentists | 14,270 | 16,910 | Up 18.5% |
| Estate agents | 27,495 | 31,430 | Up 14.3% |
| Driving schools | 1,965 | 2,245 | Up 14.2% |
| Funeral directors | 4,620 | 5,275 | Up 14.2% |
| Licensed restaurants | 35,105 | 38,735 | Up 10.3% |
| Garages and car repair | 50,150 | 55,255 | Up 10.2% |
| Electricians | 47,330 | 51,985 | Up 9.8% |
| Bookkeepers | 7,425 | 8,145 | Up 9.7% |
| Joiners | 27,845 | 29,270 | Up 5.1% |
| Vets | 6,955 | 7,260 | Up 4.4% |
| Nurseries and child day care | 18,030 | 18,460 | Up 2.4% |
| Painters and decorators | 12,220 | 12,440 | Up 1.8% |
| Solicitors | 16,760 | 16,285 | Down 2.8% |
| Architects | 15,125 | 14,690 | Down 2.9% |
| Nursing homes | 4,355 | 4,225 | Down 3.0% |
| Opticians | 7,515 | 7,195 | Down 4.3% |
| Pubs and bars | 39,145 | 37,350 | Down 4.6% |
| Laundries and dry cleaners | 5,170 | 4,865 | Down 5.9% |
| Pharmacies | 12,095 | 11,025 | Down 8.8% |
| Accountants | 37,075 | 33,125 | Down 10.7% |
Source: ONS UK Business Counts, local units, 2019 and 2026, collected 10 November 2026. Sites registered for VAT or PAYE only. Change worked out by Whito.
How to read the result
A low number can mean two different things. It can mean too few businesses for the people who live there. It can also mean people there buy less of that service, or travel to the next town for it. The count alone cannot tell you which.
So treat a low number as a clue. The next step is to check it: who the local businesses are, what they charge, how busy they look, and who lives nearby.
Five limits to keep in mind
- The ONS only counts businesses registered for VAT or PAYE (the payroll tax system). Many one-person trades are too small to register, so they are not in these counts.
- The comparison uses people who live in the area. Visitors, commuters and shoppers from elsewhere are not counted, which makes city centres and holiday areas look crowded.
- Some chains register every branch at their head office. That inflates one area and hides branches everywhere else. We found this with opticians in Hampshire, where Specsavers registers its store companies.
- Every count is rounded to the nearest 5, so small numbers are rough.
- A site is one business address. It says nothing about how big or how good the business is.
Want the gap checked properly?
A Market Opportunity Report takes one industry and one area and does the checking this tool cannot: the named competitors, their published prices, who owns them, how the market has moved, and the strongest reasons the gap might not be real. Fixed price of £1,280, written by a named analyst, with every source listed.
Questions people ask
Where do the numbers come from?
Business counts are from the ONS dataset UK Business Counts (local units), 2026 and 2019 editions, by five-digit industry code. Population is the ONS mid-2025 estimate. Both were collected from Nomis, the ONS data service, on 10 November 2026. Whito worked out the per-100,000 figures and the comparisons.
What is a business site?
One address where a business operates. The ONS calls it a local unit. A firm with three branches counts as three sites. A firm with one office counts as one.
Does a low number prove there is a gap in the market?
No. It can mean too few businesses, or it can mean people there buy less of that service or travel elsewhere for it. Treat it as a clue to check, not proof.
Why is my trade not listed?
Some trades have no industry code of their own. Locksmiths, for example, are counted inside a wider group, so an honest count is not possible. We only list kinds of business with their own code.
Why does an area show far more than the UK figure?
Usually one of three reasons: the area draws customers from outside (city centres, holiday areas), a chain registers its branches there, or the area has few residents. The tool warns you when a figure is more than double the UK one.
Can I use these figures?
Yes. The data is ONS data under the Open Government Licence. If you quote a comparison worked out here, please credit Whito and link to this page. You can download every figure as a CSV file with the button in the tool.
Sources
ONS, UK Business Counts, local units by industry and area, via Nomis. ONS, mid-year population estimates, via Nomis. Collected 10 November 2026. Method note on head office registration: sample Market Opportunity Report, UK opticians. Found a mistake? Use our corrections page.