New research has revealed the most popular times of the year to start a business. The study by UK financial services provider CMC Markets analysed the latest ONS data on weekly company incorporations found that from Saturday, 4th June to Friday, 10th June 2022, 18,386 new businesses were created at Companies House. This was the fifth highest number of new business incorporations since records of weekly data began at the start of 2019.

This number of weekly incorporations equates to 2,627 per day and 109 per hour. A company incorporation is when a company is added to the Companies House register of limited companies. This can also include where an existing business applies to become a limited company, where it wasn't one before.

The data reveals that in April 2022, there were a total of 79,120 new businesses, the highest monthly number of incorporations in 2022 and the third highest since weekly records began. July 2020, the height of the pandemic saw the highest number of new businesses with 88,070 incorporations, closely followed by 84,339 in October 2020.

The study revealed that 2022 saw the highest number of businesses created in a year since the records began, with 778,220 incorporations. This equates to a weekly average of 14,966 new businesses, which is ahead of pre-covid figures in 2019, when there were a total of 670,575 new business incorporations and a weekly average of 12,896. The data reveals there has been a steady increase in new businesses since the pandemic.  

Number of Business Incorporations in 2022 

Month 

Weekly Average 

Monthly Total  

January  

14,686 

58,744 

February 

16,448 

65,791 

March 

16,304 

65,216 

April 

15,824 

79,120 

May 

15,576 

62,305 

June 

14,942 

59,767 

July 

14,628 

73,142 

August 

14,764 

59,056 

September 

14,551 

72,755 

October 

15,762 

63,049 

November 

15,073 

60,292 

December 

11,797 

58,983 

Soucre: ONS Company incorporations 

Year 

Total Incorporations 

Weekly average 

Daily rate of company incorporation applications 

Hourly rate of company incorporation applications 

2019 

670,575 

12,896 

1,837.19 

76.55 

2020 

758,012 

14,557 

2,076.75 

86.53 

2021 

762,278 

14,383 

2,088.43 

87.02 

2022 

778,220 

14,966 

2,132.11 

88.84 

Soucre: ONS Company incorporations 

A spokesperson from CMC Markets commented on the findings: “The incorporation data offers a compelling insight into business trends through the year, revealing the most popular week of 2022 for new businesses.

“From June 2020 onwards, the pace of new incorporations picked up significantly compared to 2019, and has increased year on year, with the highest number of businesses being created in 2022, setting a weekly average of 14,966.

  

“The impact of the pandemic appears to have sparked a passion for entrepreneurialism in the UK, which has continued to grow. It will be interesting to see if the number of incorporations continues to increase into 2023.”