Economic prosperity

This target keeps track of the rate that new businesses are starting up and compares Plymouth’s performance to that of the South West.

Target

The target is to increase rate by 1 per cent per year of the regional rate.

This target has been met.

Business births per 10,000 adults (16+) 2004 - 2009 graph [196KB]

605 new businesses started up in Plymouth in 2009. The gap between the rate of business births in the city and the regional average has been narrowing each year since 2004. In 2009 (with both rates being depressed significantly by the recession) the gap was just 13.3 business births per 10,000 adults. This means that despite the overall rate for Plymouth declining, there is an improvement in the city’s relative position in the south west. Plymouth’s contribution to the rate of new business in the south west rose by 5.1 percentage points from 63.1 per cent to 68.2 per cent in the five years (2004 to 2009) thereby meeting the city’s target.

This page of the annual monitoring report was updated December 2011.