New figures released this week from the Office of National Statistics, show there are 125 more private sector businesses in York, since 2012. The increase takes York from 8010 to 8135 businesses, from across all sectors.

The ONS figures show micro businesses (0-4 employees), and small to medium enterprises (249 or less employees) were particularly strong areas of growth in the city, with both proportionally at an all time high. York has also seen an increase in businesses turnovers across all recorded ONS sectors since 2012.

The highest increase in business growth has been in the £0-£49,000 turnover bracket, reaffirming the reported increase in micro and SME businesses. Growth in large companies has also remained stable.

The figures show that individual sectors such as ‘property’, ‘information and communication’ and ‘professional, scientific and technical’ show the biggest increase with 145 (47.5%), 115 (18.7%) and 70 (11.3%) new businesses being established, respectively. Sectors seeing some negative impacts include ‘construction’ (-7.4%), ‘accommodation and food services’ (-6.4%) and ‘entertainment, recreation and leisure’ at (-4.4%), which is in line with the regional trend in these sectors.