Businesses in Scotland: 2025
Information on the number of businesses operating in Scotland.
High Growth Businesses
A high growth business is defined as a business that exhibits an average of 20% annual growth over three years. Growth can be measured by turnover or by the number of employees. The business must also have 10+ employees in the base year (x-3).
Note that there are lags associated with the turnover and employment data used to measure high growth. The latest growth calculations compare Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) extracts as at March 2022 and March 2025. But with the lags, this is really comparing 2020 turnover with 2023 turnover and 2021 employment with 2024 employment.
In terms of turnover growth, the number of high growth businesses increased from 2,685 as at March 2024 to 5,490 as at March 2025. The latest estimate of 5,490 businesses is exceptionally high, which is largely due to the starting point for the growth calculation being turnover from 2020. For many businesses turnover in 2020 would have been particularly low due to COVID-19 restrictions impacting trading conditions.
In terms of employment growth, the number of high growth businesses decreased from 870 as at March 2024 to 840 as at March 2025.
Contact
For enquiries about this publication please contact:
Marina Curran
Business & Innovation Statistics
Office of the Chief Economic Adviser
e-mail: industrystatistics@gov.scot
For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:
Office of the Chief Statistician
e-mail: statistics.enquiries@gov.scot