New research has identified the most entrepreneurial cities in the UK.
Manchester was named the most entrepreneurial city, with an increase of 32% in the number of businesses registered in 2020 ahead of Leicester and even London.
After a challenging 18 months for businesses, Instant Offices analysed the population to startup ratio across the country’s top cities to discover which locations saw the highest concentration of entrepreneurs in the last 12 months.
In 2020 the country saw a significant surge in companies registered, with an increase of 59% despite the economic uncertainty caused by COVID-19.
Even before the pandemic, redundancy and unemployment were driving entrepreneurship in the UK, with 30% of small businesses founded from 2016-2020 started by people who had been made redundant or were unemployed.
After the surge in new businesses last year, entrepreneurship is still on the rise in the UK, with 48,350 companies registered since the start of 2021.
Manchester came out on top as the UK’s most entrepreneurial city, with a 32% increase in the number of businesses registered in 2020, meaning one company was registered per every 34 people living in the city.
The most popular sectors in Manchester include retail, online sales, and the eCommerce sector.
Leicester closely follows, with an entrepreneurial index of 38, with the city seeing an impressive 46% rise in new business registrations between 2019 and 2020.
Surprisingly, London ranks third on the list this year, as more businesses were registered outside the capital.
The data was compiled by Instant Offices, which has built a tool to analyse Companies House data.