Report highlights UK's entrepreneurial flair

The UK has generally very positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship, especially towards entrepreneurial skills and the perception of start-up opportunities…

Rebecca Harding
Report author
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor UK

By Anna Rooke, OurWorld Editor

The UK is maintaining a consistently high level of entrepreneurial activity according to an international survey.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor found the proportion of adults creating businesses dropped from 12.4 per cent to 10 per cent in the US, 9.3 per cent to 7.1 per cent in Canada and 5.4 per cent to 4.4 per cent in France.

In the UK, however, the slight decline - from 6.2 per cent to 5.8 per cent - was considered “statistically insignificant”.

Positive perception

“The UK has generally very positive attitudes towards entrepreneurship, especially towards entrepreneurial skills and the perception of start-up opportunities in comparison to the other G8 countries,” said Rebecca Harding, the report’s author.

The UK has a higher proportion of adults starting businesses than other European countries.

High success rate

“It is encouraging that the UK’s levels of entrepreneurial activity, particularly in its earliest stages are better than those in continental Europe and that we have a better sustainability ratio (of established businesses to start ups) than the US or Canada,” commented Harding.

The proportion of people running established businesses in the UK is 93 per cent of the start-up rate, showing that the vast majority of ventures are successful.