An estimated 408,000 family-business workplaces with 5+ employees in Great Britain

How many workplaces in Great Britain are family businesses? Until now there has not been a clear answer, because national statistics rarely identify family businesses separately.

In a new FBRF research briefing, Martin Kemp, Director of Research at the Family Business Research Foundation, estimates that Great Britain had around 408,000 family-business workplaces with five or more employees in 2025. This is equivalent to 55.4% of the 737,045 business workplaces of that size recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in March 2025.

The briefing also estimates that family-business workplaces of this size employ approximately 8–9 million people. They are overwhelmingly small: about 381,000, or 93%, have 5–49 employees.

The estimate was calculated by combining the prevalence of family ownership and management based on data collected in the UK government’s 2018–19 Management and Wellbeing Practices Survey with the latest ONS count of business workplaces. Because the survey dates from 2018–19, the estimate assumes the share remained broadly stable in the intervening period. The figures are based on counts of workplaces or individual sites rather than businesses - i.e. a single family business can operate from several workplaces.

The research briefing explains the methodology, assumptions and limitations behind the estimates, and shows how little official data exists on the family-business economy.

Read Research and Policy Briefing No. 9 and download the full publication.