UK company counts · Engineering
Engineering companies in the UK
About 160,000 active engineering companies are registered in the UK, according to the Companies House register of 1 September 2026. 69% of them have an employee count in accounts filed up to 24 October 2026.
Accounts filed up to 24 October 2026 Register of 1 September 2026
The list behind the number
Which companies these are, with names, company numbers, registered addresses and each dated headcount, is what the report is for. Here they stay hidden.
| Company | Location | Incorporated | Employees |
|---|
One-off payment · no sales call · no account needed · CSV sent to the email you pay with. A report holds the first 1,500 by name; narrow by region or size, or Unlimited holds 5,000 a list.
Growing engineering companies in the UK, every Monday
Firmo Weekly: how many engineering companies in the UK added staff since their last filed accounts, the searches that find them, and one click to the list. Free, at 08:00 every Monday.
By size: engineering in the UK
| Employees | Companies | Share | All sectors, UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro 0 to 9 | about 97,000 | 61% | 58% |
| Small 10 to 49 | about 12,000 | 8% | 4% |
| Medium 50 to 249 | about 2,200 | 1% | 1% |
| Large 250 or more | about 170 | under 1% | under 1% |
| No figure filed not known | about 45,000 | 28% | 37% |
| All active companies | about 160,000 | 100% | 100% |
| Grew by 10 or more staff any size | about 730 | under 1% | under 1% |
Shares are worked out from the rounded counts. No figure filed means the company has not filed a machine-readable headcount: it may be large or small, and it is never counted as zero. A filed 0 is a real answer and sits under micro.
By region
| Region | All sizes | Medium 50 to 249 | Large 250+ | Grew by 10+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North East | about 6,300 | about 90 | fewer than 10 | about 30 |
| North West | about 17,000 | about 260 | about 20 | about 80 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | about 12,000 | about 230 | fewer than 20 | about 60 |
| East Midlands | about 9,300 | about 180 | fewer than 20 | about 50 |
| West Midlands | about 15,000 | about 270 | fewer than 20 | about 80 |
| East of England | about 16,000 | about 240 | fewer than 20 | about 60 |
| London | about 28,000 | about 170 | fewer than 20 | about 90 |
| South East | about 19,000 | about 270 | about 30 | about 110 |
| South West | about 12,000 | about 190 | fewer than 20 | about 70 |
| Wales | about 5,000 | about 100 | fewer than 10 | about 30 |
| Scotland | about 12,000 | about 130 | fewer than 20 | about 50 |
| Northern Ireland | about 3,300 | about 60 | fewer than 10 | about 20 |
Region comes from the registered office postcode. Companies with no UK postcode count in the UK totals only.
What is counted
- Sector
- Engineering design and consultancy (SIC 71.12), and the engineering manufacturing divisions: fabricated metal products, electronics, electrical equipment, machinery, motor vehicles, other transport equipment including aerospace, and the repair and installation of machinery (divisions 25 to 30 and 33). Architecture and technical testing are not included. SIC 2007: division 25 (Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment); division 26 (Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products); division 27 (Manufacture of electrical equipment); division 28 (Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c.); division 29 (Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers); division 30 (Manufacture of other transport equipment); division 33 (Repair and installation of machinery and equipment); 71121 (Engineering design activities for industrial process and production); 71122 (Engineering related scientific and technical consulting activities); 71129 (Other engineering activities).
- Companies
- Active companies on the Companies House register. A company with several of these codes counts once.
- Headcounts
- 69% of these companies have an employee count in accounts we have read. The rest are shown as No figure filed, never as zero.
- Dates
- Each company's size is from its latest filed accounts, read up to 24 October 2026. Accounts are filed up to nine months after the year end, so a figure can describe a year that ended some time ago.
- Rounding
- Counts are rounded to two significant figures, and under 20 are shown only as fewer than 10 or fewer than 20, so no count points at a single company. The report is exact.
Questions about these figures
How many engineering companies are there in the UK?
About 160,000 active engineering companies are registered in the UK, according to the Companies House register of 1 September 2026. 69% of them have an employee count in accounts filed up to 24 October 2026. Counts are rounded to two significant figures, and are for active companies only.
How is company size measured?
By the average number of employees each company states in its latest filed accounts, read from the tagged figure in accounts filed electronically. The bands count employees only: micro 0 to 9, small 10 to 49, medium 50 to 249 and large 250 or more. That is not the Companies Act size test, which also uses turnover and balance sheet. 69% of engineering companies in the UK have filed a figure; the rest are counted as No figure filed, never as zero.
How up to date is this?
The register is the Companies House snapshot of 1 September 2026, and new accounts are read every day; these figures use accounts filed up to 24 October 2026. Each company's headcount is as of its own accounts date, which can be a year or more before the day it was filed.
Can I download the list?
Yes. The list of these companies, with names, company numbers, registered addresses, SIC codes and every headcount with the date of its accounts, is a one-off CSV for £25 (up to 1,500 companies), with no account and no sales call. Unlimited, from £159 a month, allows up to 5,000 companies a list. The free search shows the same count, not which companies.
Which SIC codes count as engineering?
Engineering design and consultancy (SIC 71.12), and the engineering manufacturing divisions: fabricated metal products, electronics, electrical equipment, machinery, motor vehicles, other transport equipment including aerospace, and the repair and installation of machinery (divisions 25 to 30 and 33). Architecture and technical testing are not included. Codes counted: division 25 (Manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment); division 26 (Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products); division 27 (Manufacture of electrical equipment); division 28 (Manufacture of machinery and equipment n.e.c.); division 29 (Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers); division 30 (Manufacture of other transport equipment); division 33 (Repair and installation of machinery and equipment); 71121 (Engineering design activities for industrial process and production); 71122 (Engineering related scientific and technical consulting activities); 71129 (Other engineering activities). A company counts if any of its SIC codes is in the set.