Active UK companies, 1+ reported employees

Every company that's
actually employing. Refreshed
every month.

A licensed file covering company identity, classification, registered address, and year-on-year headcount for active UK companies with one or more reported employees. Annual licences include the full database on day one, then a refreshed file every month after. Need a narrower band — 21–50 staff, 200+, a specific sector? The file scopes to whatever range you need.

2.1M+
ACTIVE EMPLOYERS COVERED
100%
CURRENT HEADCOUNT COVERAGE
Daily
EXTRACTION, WITH DAILY FEED OPTION
Monthly
STANDARD DELIVERY CADENCE
What's in the file

One record per company, three groups of fields.

Every row ties a registered company to its identity, its classification, and two years of comparable headcount data — current period against prior period, so growth is visible without a join.

Identity & address

  • Company number
  • Company name
  • Registered address (lines 1–2, town, country, postcode)
  • Incorporation date

Classification

  • SIC code + description

Headcount

  • Employees — this year
  • Employees — last year
Company landscape · as reported 31 July 2026

Active companies by reported headcount

Figures below are as filed with Companies House. The standard product covers active companies with one or more reported employees — pick a single band or any combination, from sole employers up to 200+.

0 employees (reported)
1,257,939
24.2%
0 employees (blank / not reported)
512,061
9.8%
1 employee
879,343
16.9%
2 employees
541,236
10.4%
3 employees
179,334
3.4%
4 employees
107,010
2.1%
5 employees
66,721
1.3%
6–10 employees
152,587
2.9%
11–20 employees
89,926
1.7%
21–50 employees
61,393
1.2%
51–200 employees
25,040
0.5%
201+ employees
4,074
0.1%

2,106,664 active companies report one or more employees. A further 1,770,000 report zero or have no headcount field on file, and are excluded from the standard product by default.

As of 31st July 2026

Data dictionary

Field-by-field reference

Every field, its type, and what it means — this is the schema buyers integrate against.

FieldTypeDescriptionExample
company_number string Unique Companies House registration number. National prefixes apply (e.g. SC, NI, OC). 09214532
company_name string Registered company name as held at Companies House. EXAMPLE TRADING LTD
sic_code string Standard Industrial Classification code and description for the company's activity. 62012 - Business and domestic software development
reg_address_line_1 string First line of the registered office address. UNIT 3 EXAMPLE BUSINESS PARK
reg_address_line_2 string Second line of the registered office address, where filed. EXAMPLE ROAD
reg_address_post_town string Post town of the registered office. LEEDS
reg_address_country string Country component of the registered address, where filed. ENGLAND
reg_address_postcode string Postcode of the registered office. LS1 4AP
incorporation_date date (DD/MM/YYYY) Date the company was incorporated. 11/05/2021
employees_last_year integer Average number of employees, prior filed period. 8
employees_this_year integer Average number of employees, latest filed period. 9

Coverage extends beyond limited companies to LLPs, Scottish limited partnerships, and Northern Ireland-registered entities — company numbers carry the standard Companies House prefixes for each (e.g. SC Scotland, NI Northern Ireland, OC LLP, SO Scottish LP). A small share of LLPs file no SIC code at all. Address line 2 and country are optional fields on a company's filing and aren't always supplied. Every field below is populated where reported — coverage varies field by field; see the breakdown.

Field coverage — % of records populated
  • company_number100%
  • company_name100%
  • sic_code100%
  • incorporation_date100%
  • reg_address_line_1100%
  • reg_address_line_261%
  • reg_address_post_town~99.5%
  • reg_address_country84%
  • reg_address_postcode100%
  • employees_this_year100%
  • employees_last_year83%

Based on a 7,726-company extract of active employers.

Delivery & infrastructure

Straight to your own S3 prefix — no marketplace layer.

The dataset is built and hosted on AWS, so delivery stays inside AWS rather than routing through a third-party listing. This keeps the file, the schedule, and the access controls entirely within a direct licence between us.

01 / EXTRACT

Daily pull

Company filings are pulled from Companies House daily and normalised against the schema — new incorporations, updated accounts, and revised filings are picked up as they land.

02 / PACKAGE

Monthly build

On the first business day of each month, the full dataset is compiled into a dated CSV and XLSX export, alongside a checksum manifest for integrity verification.

03 / DELIVER

S3 handoff

Your first delivery is the full database. Files land in a dedicated, encrypted S3 prefix for your account, and every month after, a refreshed full file follows the same way. You're notified automatically, and pull the files via the AWS console, CLI, or a signed URL — whichever suits your setup.

// per-client delivery structure s3://staffdata-delivery/ └── clients/ └── {client-name}/ ├── 2026-06/ │ ├── dataset-2026-06.csv │ ├── dataset-2026-06.xlsx │ └── manifest.sha256 ├── 2026-07/ │ └── ... └── 2026-08/ └── ...

Access model

Either a scoped IAM user/role limited to your own prefix (read-only, least privilege), or 7-day signed URLs if you'd rather not hold AWS credentials at all.

Encryption

Server-side encryption at rest (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS on request), and TLS in transit for every download.

Versioning

Bucket versioning is enabled — every monthly drop is retained under its own dated folder, nothing is overwritten.

File formats

UTF-8 CSV for pipelines, formatted XLSX for analysts, plus a SHA-256 manifest so you can confirm the file arrived intact.

Notification

An email (or SNS topic, on request) fires the moment a new month's files land in your prefix.

Why not Marketplace

This is a direct annual licence, not a metered listing — no revenue share, no usage metering, and terms set between us rather than a third party.

Available standalone or bundled

Daily file feed

For buyers who need same-day visibility on new incorporations and filing changes rather than waiting for the monthly build, the daily extract itself is available as a separate feed — delivered by email each day as a CSV attachment (typically ~22MB, gzip-compressed to clear standard inbox limits), scoped to whatever headcount range or SIC selection you've agreed. If a recipient's mail server rejects the attachment, we fall back to a signed download link automatically. See pricing below.

"
Most company data files are 30% graveyard — dissolved businesses, phantom employers, headcounts from three years ago. Staff Data solved that for us. Every record is an active UK company that's genuinely employing, with year-on-year headcount you can actually trust, and the monthly refresh means it stays that way. Being able to scope the file to a specific staff band or sector saves us cleaning and filtering on our end. Straightforward to deal with, and the product does exactly what it says.
Chris Niebel
CEO, The Genius Group — ranked 3rd, Sunday Times Top 100 fastest-growing private companies
Pricing

Licence the monthly file, the daily feed, or both.

Annual licence
£8,000 / year
Ex. VAT · billed annually
  • Full database on day one
  • 12 monthly deliveries a year
  • Full field set — identity, classification, address, headcount
  • CSV and XLSX formats, every drop
  • Dedicated, encrypted S3 delivery prefix
  • Data dictionary and schema support
Request access
Daily feed only
£500 / month
Ex. VAT · billed monthly
  • Daily CSV of new & changed filings (~22MB), by email
  • Same-day visibility on new filings
  • Scoped to your agreed headcount range or sector
  • No annual commitment
Request access
Best value Bundle
£10,000 / year
Ex. VAT · billed annually · saves £4,000 vs. separate
  • Full database on day one
  • Everything in the annual licence
  • Plus the daily email feed, included
  • One contract, one point of contact
  • Priority support
Request access

Scoped to a specific headcount range, sector, or region on request. Multi-seat access or a bespoke field set are available as further add-ons. A written data licence covering permitted use and redistribution is put in place before delivery begins.

Need something narrower

Build a bespoke dataset

Every standard tier above covers the full active-employer universe. If you only need a slice of it, we'll scope and quote a custom extract — filtered on any combination of the criteria below, delivered on the same monthly or daily basis.

Employee range

  • Any single band, e.g. 21–50
  • Or a custom range you define
  • Combine multiple bands

Geographic location

  • Region, county, or post town
  • Postcode area or district
  • England, Scotland, Wales, or NI

Industry

  • One or more SIC codes
  • Sector groupings on request
  • Exclude sectors instead, if easier

Tell us the range, location, or sector you need and we'll come back with a scoped quote based on what's involved in delivering it.

Get a quote
Already have a company list

Enrich your existing data

Send us a list of companies you already hold, and we'll match it against our database and append our fields — headcount, SIC, address, incorporation date, and more.

Company number + name

  • 98%+ match rate
  • The most accurate matching method
  • Recommended where available

Company name only

  • Fully supported
  • Match rate depends on name consistency in your data
  • Good option when company numbers aren't held

Turnaround

Records matched and returned securely within 24 hours.

Volume

Any volume handled, from a few hundred rows to your full customer base.

Pricing

From £750, scoped to volume and match method.

Free test

Send your first 50 records and we'll match them at no cost, so you can see match quality before committing.

Send us a sample of your list and we'll run the free 50-record test, so you can see match quality before you commit to anything.

Request your free test
FAQ

Before you ask

Where does the underlying data come from?

Company filings held at Companies House, published under the Open Government Licence. What you're licensing here is the extraction, structuring, and headcount modelling layered on top, delivered on a fixed monthly schedule.

Why deliver via S3 instead of AWS Marketplace?

Marketplace suits metered, self-serve products. This is a single annual licence with a fixed monthly file — a scoped S3 prefix gets you the same AWS-native delivery without marketplace fees or listing overhead.

Can we get historical months?

Yes — past monthly snapshots are available outside the standard tier. Get in touch and we'll scope it against what you need.

What happens if a filing is corrected after delivery?

Corrections are picked up in the next daily extract and reflected in the following month's file. Each monthly export is a full snapshot, not an incremental diff, so you always have the complete current picture.

Get in touch

Request access

Tell us a little about how you'd use the feed, and we'll follow up with a sample extract and onboarding steps.

info@staffdata.co.uk
0161 515 0038

Drop us a line with your name, organisation, and what you're looking to use the data for — we'll come back with a sample extract and next steps.

Email info@staffdata.co.uk