High growth firms
Data on high growth firms is available from the Office for National Statistics in their Business Demography release, where they classify high growth firms as firms that have achieved an average annualised growth rate greater than 20% per year over a three-year period. Growth can be measured in terms of employment or in terms of turnover. Firms with fewer than 10 employees in the starting period are excluded so the data is not skewed by small firms.
The data shows that the North East has a comparable number of high growth firms as a proportion of the total firms in the latest period compared to the national average. 4.0% firms were classified as high growth in 2018-2021, compared to 3.9% in England excluding London. The proportion of firms classified as high growth has remained fairly constant over time.
Within the North East LEP the proportion of high growth firms was highest in South Tyneside and the lowest in County Durham. The proportion of high growth firms in the North East LEP area was also comparable to most of the Core City LEPs.
