Leadership of small and medium enterprises
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- 1. Navigate to Main facts and figures section
- 2. Navigate toBy ethnicity and area (employers) section
- 3. Navigate toBy ethnicity and area (non-employers) section
- 4. Navigate toBy ethnicity and sector (employers) section
- 5. Navigate toBy ethnicity and sector (non-employers) section
- 6. Navigate to Methodology section
- 7. Navigate to Data sources section
- 8. Navigate to Download the data section
1. Main facts and figures
New data for the period 2020-2021 is available if you download the data. The charts, tables and commentary on this page cover 2018 and do not include the new data.
- in 2018, 5.4% of small and medium enterprise (SME) employers were led by a majority of people from an ethnic minority (excluding White minorities)
- the accommodation and food services sector had the highest percentage of ethnic minority-led SME employers
- the agriculture and utilities, manufacturing, and construction sectors had the lowest percentage of ethnic minority-led SME employers
- Northern Ireland was the country with the highest percentage of White-led SME employers
- in 2018, 4.4% of SMEs with no employees were majority led by those from an ethnic minority
- the agriculture and utilities, construction, and transport and storage industries had the lowest percentage of ethnic minority-led non-employer SMEs
- England had the highest percentage of all ethnic minority-led non-employer SMEs
Things you need to know
The data is from the Longitudinal Small Business Survey, which is an annual telephone survey of UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are businesses with fewer than 250 employees.
Survey respondents can be the owners or senior decision makers of the business, or someone doing it on their behalf. The survey includes a question about the ethnicity of the business’ owners or leadership team.
The term ‘majority led’ refers to the ethnic make up of the business’s leadership team (including the owners). For example, a business is majority led by the White ethnic group if more than half of the leadership team is White. If at least half a leadership team is from an ethnic minority (excluding White minorities), then the business is led by ethnic minorities.
Businesses that are not majority led by those from an ethnic minority may still have some leaders from an ethnic minority background, but this is not reflected in these figures.
The ethnicity of leadership teams is unknown for 8.0% of SME employers and 6.4% of SME non-employers.
Definitions
The Small Business Survey uses the term ‘human health’ instead of health and social care, and ‘primary sector’ instead of agriculture and utilities.
Professional and scientific industries include management consultancy, architecture, engineering and accountancy.
Other services include personal services, such as hairdressing and beauty, funeral directors and dry cleaning.
What the data measures
The figures show the percentage of UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that:
- are majority led by people from an ethnic minority (excluding White minorities)
- are majority led by people from the White ethnic group
- have leadership teams where ethnicity is unknown
Businesses are classified as ‘majority led’ by people from an ethnic minority if 50% or more of their leadership are from ethnic minorities (excluding White minorities). Businesses are classified as majority led by the White ethnic group if more than 50% of their leadership are from the White ethnic group.
The data is presented for SME employers (those with between one and 249 employees) and SME non-employers (those with no employees) separately.
The ethnic categories used in this data
This measure uses broad ethnic categories to enable large enough numbers for analysis.
The 2 broad ethnic groups are:
- White – including White British and White ethnic minorities
- Other – all other ethnic groups
2. By ethnicity and area (employers)
| White | Other than White | Unknown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Nation | White Percentage | White Number | Other than White Percentage | Other than White Number | Unknown Percentage | Unknown Number |
| England | 86.4 | 1,033,308 | 5.9 | 70,834 | 7.7 | 92,383 |
| Northern Ireland | 91.1 | 32,347 | 1.2 | 415 | 7.7 | 2,738 |
| Scotland | 87.6 | 83,552 | 1.8 | 1,677 | 10.7 | 10,176 |
| UK | 86.6 | 1,197,070 | 5.4 | 73,928 | 8.0 | 110,777 |
| Wales | 88.1 | 47,863 | 1.8 | 1,002 | 10.1 | 5,480 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and area (employers)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and area (employers)’ (CSV)
Summary of Leadership of small and medium enterprises By ethnicity and area (employers) Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2018, 5.4% of small and medium enterprise (SME) employers were majority led by ethnic minorities (excluding White minorities)
- 86.6% of SME employers were majority led by White people and 8.0% had leadership teams were ethnicity was unknown
- SME employers that were majority led by ethnic minorities were more common in England (5.9%) than in Scotland (1.8%), Wales (1.8%) or Northern Ireland (1.2%)
- SME employers that were majority led by White people were more common in Northern Ireland (91.1%) than in Wales (88.1%), Scotland (87.6%) or England (86.4%)
3. By ethnicity and area (non-employers)
| White | Other than White | Unknown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Nation | White Percentage | White Number | Other than White Percentage | Other than White Number | Unknown Percentage | Unknown Number |
| England | 88.7 | 3,370,649 | 5.0 | 188,199 | 6.4 | 242,777 |
| Northern Ireland | 88.9 | 86,314 | 0.5 | 508 | 10.6 | 10,253 |
| Scotland | 93.7 | 220,701 | 0.4 | 900 | 5.9 | 13,854 |
| UK | 89.1 | 3,813,745 | 4.4 | 189,606 | 6.4 | 274,874 |
| Wales | 94.5 | 136,080 | 0.0 | 0 | 5.5 | 7,990 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and area (non-employers)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and area (non-employers)’ (CSV)
Summary of Leadership of small and medium enterprises By ethnicity and area (non-employers) Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2018, 4.4% of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with no employees were majority led by those from an ethnic minority (excluding White minorities)
- 89.1% of SME non-employers were majority led by White people and 6.4% had leadership teams where ethnicity was unknown
- SME non-employers that were majority led by ethnic minorities were more common in England (5.0%), than in Northern Ireland (0.5%), Scotland or Wales (both less than 0.5%)
- SME non-employers that were majority led by White people were more common in Wales (94.5%) than in Scotland (93.7%), Northern Ireland (88.9%) or England (88.7%)
4. By ethnicity and sector (employers)
| White | Other than White | Unknown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sector | White Percentage | White Number | Other than White Percentage | Other than White Number | Unknown Percentage | Unknown Number |
| All | 86.6 | 1,197,070 | 5.4 | 73,928 | 8.0 | 110,777 |
| ABDE. Agriculture & utilities | 95.0 | 57,673 | 0.2 | 103 | 4.8 | 2,924 |
| C. Manufacturing | 92.2 | 80,646 | 3.2 | 2,788 | 4.7 | 4,077 |
| F. Construction | 94.4 | 160,362 | 3.3 | 5,570 | 2.3 | 3,938 |
| G. Retail & wholesale | 88.3 | 212,450 | 7.4 | 17,734 | 4.4 | 10,551 |
| H. Transport & storage | 90.3 | 42,885 | 4.7 | 2,239 | 4.9 | 2,346 |
| I. Accommodation & food service | 82.1 | 108,902 | 7.9 | 10,446 | 10.0 | 13,288 |
| J. Information & communication | 88.3 | 73,611 | 5.8 | 4,844 | 5.8 | 4,871 |
| KL. Financial & real estate | 88.0 | 58,126 | 5.2 | 3,449 | 6.8 | 4,490 |
| M. Professional & scientific | 88.5 | 172,773 | 3.7 | 7,312 | 7.8 | 15,154 |
| N. Administrative services | 85.9 | 106,310 | 7.1 | 8,724 | 7.0 | 8,691 |
| P. Education | 72.5 | 14,227 | 7.4 | 1,450 | 20.2 | 3,958 |
| Q. Health and social care | 67.6 | 40,807 | 9.3 | 5,595 | 23.1 | 13,932 |
| R. Arts & entertainment | 73.5 | 19,423 | 4.4 | 1,164 | 22.1 | 5,834 |
| S. Other services | 71.8 | 48,873 | 3.7 | 2,486 | 24.6 | 16,751 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and sector (employers)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and sector (employers)’ (CSV)
Summary of Leadership of small and medium enterprises By ethnicity and sector (employers) Summary
This data shows that:
- ethnic minority-led SME employers were most common in accommodation and food services (7.9%)
- ethnic minority-led SME employers were least common in the agriculture and utilities (0.2%) and manufacturing (3.2%) sectors
- White-led SME employers were most common in the agriculture and utilities (95.0%), construction (94.4%), manufacturing (92.2%), and transport and storage (90.3%) sectors
- meaningful conclusions cannot be made about education, health and social care, arts and entertainment, and other services due to the large percentage of businesses where ethnicity is unknown
5. By ethnicity and sector (non-employers)
| White | Other than White | Unknown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sector | White Percentage | White Number | Other than White Percentage | Other than White Number | Unknown Percentage | Unknown Number |
| All | 89.1 | 3,813,745 | 4.4 | 189,606 | 6.4 | 274,874 |
| ABDE. Agriculture & utilities | 94.6 | 123,847 | 0.9 | 1,135 | 4.5 | 5,952 |
| C. Manufacturing | 88.8 | 178,767 | 4.0 | 7,981 | 7.2 | 14,582 |
| F. Construction | 92.9 | 762,748 | 2.0 | 16,743 | 5.1 | 41,954 |
| G. Retail & wholesale | 83.8 | 262,973 | 12.3 | 38,510 | 4.0 | 12,468 |
| H. Transport & storage | 95.6 | 265,385 | 2.5 | 6,837 | 2.0 | 5,494 |
| I. Accommodation & food service | 83.0 | 43,759 | 5.4 | 2,864 | 11.5 | 6,081 |
| J. Information & communication | 88.4 | 246,802 | 5.2 | 14,502 | 6.4 | 17,811 |
| KL. Financial & real estate | 91.6 | 124,642 | 4.8 | 6,538 | 3.6 | 4,915 |
| M. Professional & scientific | 90.6 | 562,148 | 4.6 | 28,731 | 4.8 | 29,875 |
| N. Administrative services | 87.9 | 321,752 | 5.5 | 20,222 | 6.6 | 24,232 |
| P. Education | 88.8 | 234,092 | 3.9 | 10,227 | 7.4 | 19,396 |
| Q. Health and social care | 85.1 | 254,606 | 5.4 | 16,174 | 9.5 | 28,540 |
| R. Arts & entertainment | 85.7 | 213,751 | 2.5 | 6,251 | 11.8 | 29,528 |
| S. Other services | 82.5 | 218,937 | 4.8 | 12,747 | 12.7 | 33,716 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and sector (non-employers)’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and sector (non-employers)’ (CSV)
Summary of Leadership of small and medium enterprises By ethnicity and sector (non-employers) Summary
This data shows that:
- non-employer SMEs that were majority led by ethnic minorities were most common in retail and wholesale (12.3%)
- non-employer SMEs that were majority led by ethnic minorities were least common in the agriculture and utilities (0.9%), construction (2.0%), and transport and storage (2.5%) sectors
- meaningful conclusions cannot be made about accommodation and food services, arts and entertainment, and other services due to the large percentage of businesses where ethnicity is unknown
6. Methodology
The 2018 Longitudinal Small Business Survey is a survey of 15,000 UK small business owners and managers, commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Information is collected by telephone interview, and the results are weighted by business size, UK nation and sector.
Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them reflect the 2018 BEIS Business Population Estimates and improve their accuracy.
Small and medium enterprise (SME) employers were oversampled to get sample sizes that allowed meaningful analysis, so businesses with no employees were weighted more heavily to compensate. This is why SME employers and SME non-employers are presented separately.
Statistically significant differences are identified using a one sample t test.
Rounding
Percentages are rounded to one decimal place; percentages may not add up to 100% as a result.
Related publications
Quality and methodology information
7. Data sources
Source
Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2021
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Note on corrections or updates
Updated to 2021 version
The 2018 dataset includes revisions to the figures for 2015 to 2017. The data presented in this website is focussed on 2018, but the revised 2017 figures are given in the dataset that is available for download from here.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The purpose of the Longitudinal Small Business Survey is to find out about the performance and behaviours of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the UK.
Secondary source
Business Population Estimates 2021
Type of data
Administrative and survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Business population estimates for the UK and regions provides the only official estimate of the total number of private sector businesses in the UK at the start of each year. The estimates are used extensively by government, the public, public bodies and businesses to analyse the scale, structure and significance of the total business population in the UK and to monitor change over time.
8. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, time, geography, sector, employer_type, value, numerator, denominator