We recently launched a new series highlighting the fastest-growing companies across every nation in the UK. With 4.97m active companies generating over £38.6m in average turnover and employing more than 43 million people, the UK is one of the world’s most dynamic business hubs.
Each country brings unique strengths — England leading with London’s 1.38m companies, Scotland’s Edinburgh driving nearly 20% of its business base, Cardiff home to almost a third of Wales’s companies, and Belfast anchoring Northern Ireland’s entrepreneurial scene.
From construction and hospitality to trade services and software, the UK’s high-growth landscape reflects both traditional industries and emerging innovation sectors.
Let’s take a closer look.
Each country brings unique strengths — England leading with London’s 1.34m companies, Scotland’s Edinburgh driving nearly 20% of its business base, Cardiff home to almost a third of Wales’s companies, and Belfast anchoring Northern Ireland’s entrepreneurial scene.
From construction and hospitality to trade services and software, the UK’s high-growth landscape reflects both traditional industries and emerging innovation sectors.
Let’s take a closer look.
How we created our lists
To profile the fastest-growing companies in England, Scotland and Wales, we used data from the Beauhurst platform, which was used in conjunction with research from the Sunday Times to create the Sunday Times Hundred. This ranking, published in the Sunday Times in June, ranks the UK’s fastest growing companies by sales growth over a three year period.
However, we used a slightly different method when exploring Northern Ireland’s fastest-growing companies, as there were no Northern Irish companies featured on the 2026 Sunday Times Hundred.
To identify the fastest-growing companies in Northern Ireland, we’ve calculated turnover growth between each company’s two most recent financial statements.
