Over 500,000 new businesses have been started up this year, according to new research that points to increasing optimism among British entrepreneurs.
According to the national enterprise campaign StartUp Britain, 502,068 businesses have already been started this year, with the total set to rise to 523,410 by the end of the year.
StartUp Britain co-founder Emma Jones said: “We’ve done it! Half a million new businesses have already been registered this year!
“We’ve been looking at these figures carefully for three years since the campaign began and it’s clear the UK’s start-up community is fit and healthy – and shows no sign of abating.”
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Micro and small firms represent 95% of all businesses and employ over seven million people, according to official government figures.
The figures mark an improvement over previous years, with 484,224 businesses started in 2012 and 440,600 started in 2011.
They were calculated by StartUp Britain's Daily tracker, which monitors the number of firms registered with Companies House on a daily, monthly and yearly basis, with figures set to be audited in March 2014.
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