Ceredigion is the local authority where small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are thriving the most, according to a new study. 

The research, conducted by Qardus, analysed data from the ONS to determine where SMEs are thriving and where they are in fact struggling. The analysis was based on six different factors, including the following: The Active Enterprise Change between 2021-2023, the change in the count of births of new enterprises 2020-2022, the change in the count of deaths of new enterprises 2020-2022, the change of high growth enterprises per 1,000, and the survival rate of SMEs across 3-5 years.  

Taking these factors into consideration, a process called minimum to maximum normalization was used to convert metrics to a score between 0 and 10, where 0 is the worst score in the range and 10 is the best.

Each metric had a weighting for how much it contributes to the final score, the score was then scaled to a maximum of 100 using the weightings provided. Local authorities were then ranked based on their overall score out of 100.  

Ceredigion is the local authority where SMEs are thriving the most.

The county recorded a score of 29.03 out of 100.

Both their three and five-year survival rates were recorded at 67.44 per cent and 55.81 per cent respectively. 

Selby (29.15 out of 100), South Staffordshire (29.31 out of 100), South Hams (29.74 out of 100) and South Derbyshire (29.95 out of 100) all also recorded scores of under 30 and rank among the areas where SME’s are thriving. 

On the other end of the scale, Bromsgrove is the local authority where SMEs are struggling the most with a score of 80.75 out of 100. Bromsgrove recorded a -30.22% drop in SME enterprises being registered between 2021 and 2023 – the biggest drop of any local authority. There was a 5.81% survival rate of SME’s in Bromsgrove recorded in the last five years too, contributing to Bromsgrove’s ranking in the study.

Hassan Daher, the founder of Qardus, said: “The findings of this study ultimately indicates that some local authorities are better equipped to host new SMEs than others. What is interesting to note is that no London based local authority ranked in the top ten, suggesting that it is difficult for SMEs to start out successfully in the capital.”