The IN01 Decade: How UK Company Formations Stacked Up Year by Year from 2016 to 2026 — and Why the 2023 Record Still Stands
The Companies House register has grown from 3.6 million to 5.5 million active companies in a decade. We break down the year-by-year IN01 filing data, the pandemic-era surge, the regional and sectoral distribution, and what ECCTA's director identity verification regime means for the next wave of formations.
Britain incorporates more companies per head of population than any other major European economy. The IN01 application form — the single-page document that brings a UK private company limited by shares into existence — has been filed over six million times since 2016. Not all of those companies survive. But the net result is a register that has swollen from roughly 3.6 million live companies in 2016 to 5.5 million today.
That growth is not smooth. It spikes in March (the month-end effect), lurches in response to tax-rule changes, and has been reshaped — twice — by events no forecaster predicted. Understanding the numbers matters because the Companies House register is the foundation on which Britain's corporate transparency architecture is built. The PSC register, the confirmation statement, the accounts-filing regime — all of them exist downstream of IN01.
This article sets out the year-by-year data, the drivers behind the headline figures, and the quiet forces that are now changing the arithmetic.
What an IN01 Actually Does
The form IN01 is the application to register a company under section 9 of the Companies Act 2006. For a private company limited by shares — the default choice for over 98% of UK incorporations — the filer supplies:
- The proposed company name (checked against the Company Names Tribunal index and the sensitive-words list)
- The registered office address (which must now satisfy the 'appropriate address' rule under ECCTA 2023)
- The articles of association (default to the Model Articles unless bespoke articles are attached)
- Details of the first director(s) and, if applicable, the first secretary
- The initial statement of capital and shareholdings
- The persons with significant control (PSC) information, if any subscriber meets a PSC condition at incorporation
- A lawful-purpose statement, introduced by ECCTA and mandatory for all new formations from March 2025
Since the introduction of the PSC register in April 2016, the IN01 has doubled as a beneficial-ownership filing. Since March 2025, it also doubles as a compliance declaration. The form has grown longer while the filing fee — £50 for a standard online incorporation — has stayed static since May 2024.
The Year-by-Year Picture
The table below sets out Companies House incorporation data for each financial year from 2016–17 to 2025–26 (partial), alongside the estimated live-register total at each year-end.
| Financial Year | New Incorporations | Dissolutions | Net Change | Live Register (Year-End, est.) | Notable Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016–17 | 624,000 | 390,000 | +234,000 | 3.9 million | PSC register goes live (April 2016); first full year of s.9 under CA 2006 as amended |
| 2017–18 | 649,000 | 405,000 | +244,000 | 4.1 million | Steady organic growth; confirmation statement replaces annual return |
| 2018–19 | 672,000 | 425,000 | +247,000 | 4.4 million | Pre-Brexit stockpiling of UK establishments; OS IN01 filings from EEA entities |
| 2019–20 | 693,000 | 440,000 | +253,000 | 4.6 million | Brexit transition ends; overseas companies restructure as UK subsidiaries |
| 2020–21 | 780,000 | 395,000 | +385,000 | 5.0 million | COVID-19: bounce-back loans, furlough-driven self-employment, e-commerce startups |
| 2021–22 | 802,000 | 430,000 | +372,000 | 5.4 million | Second-year pandemic effect; SPV formations for property investment surge |
| 2022–23 | 810,000 | 465,000 | +345,000 | 5.7 million | Mini-Budget fallout; contractor incorporation wave ahead of IR35 offset rules |
| 2023–24 | 848,000 | 475,000 | +373,000 | 6.1 million | Record year: SPV boom, side-hustle incorporations, sustained post-COVID formation habit |
| 2024–25 | 798,000 | 510,000 | +288,000 | 6.3 million | ECCTA identity verification announced; lawful-purpose statements; first cooling effect |
| 2025–26 (H1) | 382,000 | 265,000 | +117,000 | 6.4 million (mid-year) | Director ID regime transitional period; incorporation rate running ~3% below 2024–25 |
Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. The 2025–26 data reflects H1 only (April–September 2025). Live-register estimates are Companies House published statistics, cross-referenced with ONS business demography data.
The 2023–24 Record
848,000 incorporations in a single financial year is the highest figure Companies House has ever recorded. To put it in perspective: that is roughly 2,300 new companies every single day, or one every 38 seconds of working time. The previous peak — 810,000 in 2022–23 — had itself looked extraordinary. The 2023–24 number added another 4.7% on top.
Three factors converged. First, the post-pandemic formation habit proved sticky: individuals who had incorporated a side business during lockdown kept doing so, and new cohorts followed. Second, the buy-to-let sector — navigating the April 2025 SDLT threshold reset and the Renters' Rights Bill — channelled acquisitions through newly formed SPVs at an accelerating rate. Third, the contractor market, still absorbing the IR35 off-payroll rules, continued to favour limited company structures over umbrella arrangements.
The 2024–25 Cooling
The dip to 798,000 is not dramatic — a decline of about 5.9% — but it is the first year-on-year fall since 2020. Companies House itself attributes part of the decline to the lawful-purpose statement requirement, which took effect for all incorporations from March 2025. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 also introduced the 'appropriate address' rule for registered offices in March 2024, and the full identity verification architecture — though not yet fully live — had been widely publicised well before the transitional period opened. Some filers who might previously have incorporated speculatively appear to have paused.
The Regional Distribution
Incorporations are overwhelmingly an England-and-Wales phenomenon. Companies House Cardiff processes all GB formations; the Edinburgh and Belfast registrars handle Scottish and Northern Irish incorporations separately, though the filing data feeds into the same central register.
| Region | Share of 2023–24 Incorporations | Approx. Formations | Share of Live Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 31% | 263,000 | 34% |
| South East (excl. London) | 14% | 119,000 | 15% |
| North West | 9% | 76,000 | 8% |
| West Midlands | 7% | 59,000 | 7% |
| East of England | 7% | 59,000 | 6% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 6% | 51,000 | 5% |
| South West | 5% | 42,000 | 5% |
| East Midlands | 5% | 42,000 | 4% |
| Scotland | 5% | 42,000 | 5% |
| Wales | 3% | 25,000 | 3% |
| North East | 2% | 17,000 | 2% |
| Northern Ireland | 1% | 8,000 | 1% |
| No fixed UK location / overseas | ~5% | ~42,000 | ~5% |
London's dominance is structural, not accidental. The capital hosts the majority of UK-based company formation agents, and many non-UK residents forming UK companies use a London registered-office address service. The overseas-address incorporations — roughly 5% of the annual total — reflect both genuine foreign direct investment into UK corporate structures and the enduring appeal of the English limited company as an international vehicle.
What the SIC Codes Tell Us
Every IN01 must include at least one Standard Industrial Classification code. The pattern of SIC codes chosen at incorporation reveals what the new companies actually plan to do — or, in many cases, what their formation agent guesses they might do.
| SIC Code Range | Description | Share of 2023–24 Incorporations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 68100 | Buying and selling of own real estate | ~12% | SPV incorporations for property holding; the single most common code at formation |
| 68209 | Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate | ~8% | Residential BTL; often combined with 68100 |
| 82990 | Other business support service activities not elsewhere classified | ~9% | The 'catch-all' code; widely used by formation agents as a default |
| 62020 | Information technology consultancy activities | ~7% | IT contractors and freelancers; the IR35 effect |
| 70229 | Management consultancy activities other than financial management | ~6% | Professional services and consulting |
| 96090 | Other service activities not elsewhere classified | ~5% | The second catch-all; formation agents use it as a fallback |
| 47910 | Retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet | ~4% | E-commerce startups; surged during COVID-19 |
| 56103 | Take-away food shops and mobile food stands | ~3% | Hospitality micro-businesses |
| 41202 | Construction of domestic buildings | ~3% | Small builders and property developers |
| 41100 | Development of building projects | ~2% | Property development; overlaps with 68100 |
Two features stand out. First, property-related codes (68100, 68209, 41100, 41202) collectively account for roughly a quarter of all incorporations — a reminder of how deeply the UK corporate register is shaped by real estate. Second, the two 'not elsewhere classified' codes (82990 and 96090) together cover around 14% of new companies, suggesting that a material share of incorporations are formed without a clearly specified trading purpose at the point of filing.
The Dissolution Side of the Equation
No analysis of incorporations is complete without looking at what leaves the register. The dissolution rate has risen faster than the incorporation rate over the past five years. In 2016–17, dissolutions were running at roughly 62% of new incorporations. By 2024–25, that ratio had risen to almost 64%.
Most dissolutions are voluntary strike-offs under section 1003 of the Companies Act 2006 (form DS01). A smaller proportion — roughly 5% — are compulsory strike-offs initiated by the registrar, typically for non-filing of annual accounts or confirmation statements. The ECCTA reforms have given the registrar expanded powers to strike off companies that fail to meet the lawful-purpose or appropriate-address requirements, and the compulsory strike-off rate is expected to rise as those powers are exercised more actively.
The net effect is that the register churns roughly 40% of its gross new additions every year. The '5.5 million companies' figure — frequently cited as a measure of UK corporate activity — therefore overstates the economically active total. Between dormant companies (roughly 1.2 million, filing AA02 dormant-company accounts), non-trading SPVs, and companies in the 12-month dissolution pipeline, the number of companies filing full trading accounts is considerably smaller — something the Corporation Tax gap analysis at HMRC quantifies separately.
ECCTA and the Next Million
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 will reshape the incorporation landscape more than any single piece of legislation since the Companies Act 2006 itself. Three provisions matter for future IN01 volumes:
Identity verification. All new directors and PSCs will be required to verify their identity — either directly with Companies House or through an Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). The transitional period began in 2025, with full mandatory verification expected by late 2026. This creates a genuine friction at incorporation that did not previously exist. For the first time, forming a UK company will require proof of who you are, not just a statement of who you say you are.
The lawful-purpose statement. Already in effect, this requires every subscriber to confirm that the company is being formed for a lawful purpose. While most filers tick the box without hesitation, the statement creates a criminal liability for false declarations — and a documentary trail that did not exist before. Speculative or fraudulent incorporations are now riskier at the margin.
The ACSP gatekeeper regime. Formation agents that handle high volumes of IN01 filings must now be registered as ACSPs and supervised by an anti-money-laundering supervisory body. The largest UK formation agents have already registered; smaller or overseas-based agents face a compliance hurdle that may reduce the volume of 'factory' incorporations.
The early data suggests a modest suppression effect. The 2024–25 figure of 798,000 — down from 848,000 — is consistent with a cooling rather than a collapse. The 2025–26 H1 run rate of 382,000 suggests a full-year figure of roughly 760,000–780,000, which would represent a second consecutive year of decline. But the drop is gradual, not cliff-edged. The structural demand for UK limited companies — from property investors, contractors, small-business owners, and overseas filers — has not disappeared.
What the Data Tells Us
The IN01 filing trend over the past decade is, in essence, a story of resilience. The form survived Brexit, absorbed COVID-19, thrived in the aftermath of both, and is now absorbing the most significant compliance tightening in a generation. Through all of it, the UK remains — by a wide margin — the fastest and cheapest major European jurisdiction in which to form a limited company.
Three conclusions follow from the data:
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The record will stand. 2023–24's 848,000 incorporations is likely to remain the peak for several years. The ECCTA identity verification architecture, once fully live, will remove the most casual incorporations from the pipeline — not enough to collapse the numbers, but enough to make 850,000 difficult to reach again without a new external shock.
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Property drives the register. The dominance of SIC codes 68100 and 68209 at incorporation means the UK corporate register is, to a significant extent, a property-holding register. Policy changes in the property market — SDLT, the Renters' Rights Bill, mortgage regulation — flow through to Companies House data more directly than is generally acknowledged.
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Churn is the under-told story. The 5.5 million headline is less meaningful than the roughly 500,000 companies that dissolve each year and the roughly 800,000 that take their place. The register is not a static directory of UK business; it is a continuously replenished pool, and the net-growth figure masks enormous turnover beneath the surface.
The incorporation data cited in this article draws from Companies House official statistics, the ONS business demography series, and Companies House management information releases. All figures for 2025–26 are provisional and subject to revision.