UK Region – Northern Ireland

Key facts

The region has one of the youngest populations in Europe with students consistently performing well above other UK regions at GCSE and A-Level. Northern Ireland’s people have a strong work ethic and labour turnover rates among the lowest in Europe
Northern Ireland’s operating costs are highly competitive and significantly lower than the rest of the UK and Europe. Prime office rents are among the lowest in the world.
Northern Ireland has become the first region in Europe to have 100 per cent access to broadband. It will be the first UK region to be fully migrated to British Telecom’s (BT’s) state-of-the-art 21st Century Network (21CN)
Software and financial services are among the sectors experiencing the fastest growth. Belfast has recently been ranked as the top location in the British Isles for customer call and contact-centre based activities
Northern’s Ireland’s internationally renowned universities have been key drivers in the development of the region’s technology and knowledge industries. Queen’s University, Belfast and the University of Ulster have a strong track record in commercialisation of research and in spinning-off successful business ventures

Find out about transport links throughout Northern Ireland and where it lies in relation to the rest of the UK in this downloadable map.

London is only an hour away by air, with Dublin only two hours by road or rail. There are daily direct flights from each of Northern Ireland’s airports to a variety of European business locations such as Paris, Rome, Amsterdam and Berlin. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with a Euro participant (the Republic of Ireland) and the business community regularly conducts business in Euros
The number of people in employment in Northern Ireland currently stands at 780,000. The unemployment rate is currently the lowest among UK regions at 3.7 per cent
Northern Ireland’s regional government is committed to developing the knowledge-based economy and encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Companies have ready access to a broad range of funding options, financial incentives and a developing venture capital market.
In recent years, inward investors include Fujitsu, Bombardier Aerospace, Microsoft, Caterpillar, Polaris Software Lab and Halifax. Nearly three-quarters of these companies have already reinvested in Northern Ireland or are planning to.

Find information on some of Northern Ireland’s key business sectors on the Invest Northern Ireland website:

Visit the Invest Northern Ireland website for general information on investing in the region.