17,167 additional companies registered in December 2020

17,167 additional companies registered in December 2020 relative to the equivalent period a year ago.

Highlights

1. Daily business creation increases by 18.5 % between the first and second lockdown.
2. 16.9% more company registrations in the second lockdown, relative to the first one.
3. 17,167 additional companies registered in December 2020 than in December 2019.
4. 2,465 new daily company registrations since the first Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
5. Manufacturing, retail and wholesale sectors outperform in December 2020 relative to their 2019 levels. Accommodation and Food services sector’s recovery, occurred after the initial lockdown, worsens as certain areas enter the new Tier-4 scheme.

We analyse Companies House “basic company data” up to the December 31st, 2020 to understand the effect of COVID-19 policies on business creation, and hence, economic activity. We find that daily business creation increases by 18.5% after the first, but before the second, lockdown. 17,167 additional companies registered in December 2020 relative to December 2019. There is more firm creation in every sector, notably in manufacturing, retail, and wholesale sectors. Firm creation continues to increase relative to recent months, but accommodation and food services’ strong performance weakens.

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