A record-breaking number of businesses were launched in Cambridgeshire in 2020 – despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

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7,516 new companies were registered in the county compared to 6,779 during 2019 - an increase of 10.9 per cent.

It means the total number of registered companies in Cambridgeshire is now 54,497 – this is an 8.6 per cent growth from 50,160 at the end of 2019.

The statistics are taken from the Inform Direct Review of Company Formations using data from Companies House and the Office for National Statistics.

Peterborough formed the highest number of new businesses (2,511), followed by South Cambridgeshire (1,296) and Huntingdonshire (1,268).

John Korchak, operations director at Inform Direct, said: “It is excellent news to see that Cambridgeshire has achieved a record year for new company formations during 2020 despite the unprecedented uncertainties brought by COVID-19.

“Many of the new company formations are in the retail sector, with a large number of new businesses set up to sell goods online or locally, thereby taking advantage of customers’ changing shopping habits.

“Secondly, the effect of the pandemic and national lockdowns means that sadly some existing businesses have folded and employees made redundant, and we see many of those people setting up new ventures on their own as an alternative way to earn a living.

“2020 was a year like no other for UK businesses. Although we can look forward to a brighter future with the vaccination programme, there remain unknown factors such as how quickly the economy will recover and of course the impact of Brexit.”

Alongside Cambridgeshire’s achievement, the UK as a whole saw 780,766 new businesses formed, compared to 690,763 in 2019.

The overall number of UK companies also continued to grow to 4,837,426 - an 8.2 per cent increase on the total of 4,471,008 at the end of 2019.

The figures also show that the number of company dissolutions across the UK – 418,427 during 2020 – was the lowest since 2015.

See a more detailed picture of company formations in Cambridgeshire online.

Read the report in full here.