The Rise of the One-Person Business: UK Trends Since 2010

Businesses without employees have been one of the main drivers of growth in the UK’s private-sector business population since 2010.

At the start of 2025, the UK had an estimated 4.27 million private-sector businesses without employees, equivalent to around three quarters of the country’s 5.69 million private-sector businesses. Department for Business and Trade data show that their number had increased by 1.014 million since 2010.

DBT reports that non-employing businesses accounted for 84% of the total increase in the UK private-sector business population between 2010 and 2025.

But that headline needs an important qualification. A business without employees is not necessarily a literal one-person business. It can include sole proprietorships, partnerships and companies operated by their owners without additional employees. This article therefore uses official businesses without employees or non-employing businesses data as the closest broad statistical measure for analysing the rise of very small owner-operated businesses.

UK One-Person Business Statistics at a Glance

Sources: Department for Business and Trade, Business Population Estimates 2025; Office for National Statistics, LFS self-employment series. The 72.7% and 75.1% shares are Audit Consulting Group calculations from DBT data.

What Is a One-Person Business?

There is no single official UK statistical category called a “one-person business”. Several related concepts measure different things.

This distinction is supported by survey evidence. In the Department for Business and Trade’s 2024 Longitudinal Small Business Survey, 72% of surveyed businesses without employees had no more than one owner, partner or director. The remaining 28% had two or more.

For that reason, this article does not treat the UK’s entire non-employer population as 4.27 million literal single-person businesses.

Businesses Without Employees Increased by 31% Since 2010

The UK’s private-sector business population increased from approximately 4.48 million in 2010 to 5.69 million in 2025.

Most of that long-term increase came from businesses without employees. DBT reports that their number increased by 1.014 million, or 31%, while the number of employing businesses increased by approximately 193,000, or 16%.

Source: Department for Business and Trade, Business Population Estimates 2025. Figures shown in millions are rounded.

The long-term shift is also visible in the composition of the business population. Audit Consulting Group calculations using DBT figures put non-employers at approximately 72.7% of all private-sector businesses in 2010 and 75.1% in 2025.

That represents an increase of approximately 2.4 percentage points.

84% of UK Business Growth Since 2010 Came From Non-Employers

One statistic captures the scale of the structural change particularly clearly: DBT reports that businesses without employees accounted for 84% of total UK private-sector business growth between 2010 and 2025.

This is a DBT-published finding rather than an Audit Consulting Group calculation.

It shows that the expansion of the UK business population over this period was not primarily the result of growth in businesses employing staff. Instead, the majority of the numerical increase occurred among businesses operating without employees.

That does not mean these businesses were permanently solo. Some may subsequently hire, while others may previously have employed staff. The 2024 Longitudinal Small Business Survey found that 14% of businesses without employees had employed at least one person 12 months before they were interviewed.

The Rise Has Not Been Continuous

The longer-term increase can obscure a major reversal after 2020.

Non-employing business numbers reached approximately 4.568 million in 2020 before falling sharply. By 2025, the estimated population was approximately 4.273 million — around 295,000 lower than the 2020 level.

Source: Department for Business and Trade Business Population Estimates. Percentage changes and non-employer shares shown to one decimal place are Audit Consulting Group calculations from the underlying DBT figures.

DBT estimates that the total private-sector business population itself remained around 290,000, or 4.9%, below its 2020 peak in 2025.

The BPE includes estimates for businesses that are not registered for VAT or PAYE. Movements in these estimates therefore need to be interpreted with the statistical uncertainty surrounding the unregistered-business population in mind.

Business Growth and Self-Employment Have Followed Different Paths

Business-population statistics and self-employment statistics are sometimes treated as though they measure the same phenomenon. They do not.

DBT estimates businesses. The ONS Labour Force Survey estimates people classified as self-employed.

Comparing the two nevertheless reveals an important structural divergence.

Source: Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey self-employed series MGTD.

Audit Consulting Group analysis shows that the number of businesses without employees increased by approximately 31% between 2010 and 2025, while the ONS count of self-employed people increased by approximately 10.1%.

The measures are not directly equivalent, so this is a directional comparison rather than a like-for-like growth rate. But the divergence demonstrates why growth in the number of businesses without employees cannot simply be interpreted as equivalent growth in the number of self-employed people.

The post-2019 picture reinforces the distinction. UK self-employment peaked at approximately 4.962 million in 2019. In 2025 it stood at 4.393 million — approximately 11.5% below the 2019 level based on Audit Consulting Group calculations from ONS data.

Businesses Without Employees Are Not Just Sole Traders

Legal structure is another reason not to equate non-employers with self-employed sole traders.

DBT’s 2025 estimates show that the non-employing population includes millions of sole proprietorships, but also substantial numbers of companies and partnerships operating without employees apart from their owners or working proprietors.

Source: Department for Business and Trade, Business Population Estimates 2025.

The presence of almost one million companies in the non-employer population is particularly important. Incorporation and employment are separate dimensions: a business can operate through a company without employing a wider workforce.

What Does a Typical Business Without Employees Look Like?

The 2024 Longitudinal Small Business Survey provides a more detailed picture of how businesses without employees operate.

The survey covered 2,192 businesses without employees within an overall sample of 10,611 businesses. Its results are survey estimates rather than administrative counts.

Source: Department for Business and Trade, Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024: businesses with no employees. The 95% single-site figure is based on businesses providing a response.

The profile is therefore more complex than the conventional image of a freelancer working alone. Many fit that description, but the population also includes incorporated businesses, partnerships, businesses with several owners and businesses that intend eventually to employ staff.

59% of Non-Employers Wanted to Grow Sales

The survey evidence also challenges the assumption that businesses without employees are necessarily intended to remain small.

In 2024, 59% of surveyed businesses without employees said they aimed to grow sales over the next three years, up from 50% in 2023.

Meanwhile, 18% expected to increase employment over the following 12 months, compared with 12% in 2023.

These are reported intentions rather than forecasts, but they show that having no employees at a particular point in time does not necessarily represent a permanent business model.

Home-Based Does Not Mean Economically Inactive

Home working is another prominent characteristic. Seven in ten surveyed businesses without employees located their main work premises in their home, while 95% operated from a single site.

Yet these businesses still reported meaningful commercial activity. In the same survey, 27% reported higher annual turnover than 12 months earlier, while 32% reported a decline.

Almost half — 49% — reported using some form of external finance.

For owner-operated businesses, maintaining reliable financial records can become increasingly important as transaction volumes, financing or tax obligations become more complex. Audit Consulting Group provides bookkeeping support for self-employed businesses and broader bookkeeping services where professional support is required.

What the Long-Term Data Actually Show

The evidence points to a structural shift, but not a simple story of uninterrupted growth in solo entrepreneurship.

• Businesses without employees have become more numerous: their estimated population increased by around 1.014 million between 2010 and 2025.
• They account for a larger share of UK businesses: Audit Consulting Group calculations put their share at around 72.7% in 2010 and 75.1% in 2025.
• The increase has not been continuous: the estimated non-employer population remained around 295,000 below its 2020 peak in 2025.
• Business growth is not the same as self-employment growth: non-employing business numbers increased by around 31% between 2010 and 2025, compared with around 10% growth in the ONS self-employed population.
• Non-employer does not necessarily mean one person: 28% of surveyed businesses without employees had two or more owners, partners or directors.

The strongest conclusion is therefore narrower than saying that Britain has simply produced millions more solo entrepreneurs. The official data show that businesses operating without employees have become a larger and more important component of the UK private-sector business population, while the legal structures, ownership arrangements and people behind those businesses remain diverse.

Methodology and Data Limitations

This analysis uses the Department for Business and Trade’s Business Population Estimates 2025 as the primary source for the size and structure of the UK private-sector business population. BPE 2025 was published on 2 October 2025 and remained the latest edition available at the research cut-off. The publication is classified as Official Statistics in development.

The historical analysis uses DBT’s current BPE series from 2010 onwards. Historical estimates have been revised to improve comparability using the current BPE methodology, but documented methodological changes and the statistical uncertainty around estimates of unregistered businesses should still be considered when interpreting movements over time.

Characteristics of businesses without employees come from the Department for Business and Trade’s 2024 Longitudinal Small Business Survey. The overall survey included 10,611 interviews, of which 2,192 were businesses without employees. Survey percentages should therefore be interpreted as estimates rather than exact counts of the total UK population.

Self-employment data come from the ONS Labour Force Survey series MGTD. These figures count people classified as self-employed, not businesses. Comparisons between the ONS series and DBT business-population data are used to identify broad differences in trends rather than to imply that the populations are equivalent.

Audit Consulting Group calculations use source-published values and are identified separately from statistics published directly by DBT or ONS. Percentage figures may differ slightly from calculations using displayed rounded values.

Data and sources were checked up to 23 September 2026.

Principal Data Sources

• Department for Business and Trade — Business Population Estimates 2025
• Department for Business and Trade — Business Population Estimates 2025 Statistical Release
• Department for Business and Trade — Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2024: Businesses with No Employees
• Office for National Statistics — LFS Self-Employed: UK, Series MGTD