The number of people starting or investing in new businesses in the UK has decreased over the past four years, a major piece of research shows.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), one of the world's most respected annual small business studies, the number of people in the UK who expect to start a business within the next three years has fallen by 10% since 2008, and 23% since 2006, to 6.1% of the working age population.
In addition, the number of those making investments in other peoples' new businesses fell by 21% in relative terms between 2008 and 2009 – from 1.4% to 1.1% and 28% between 2006 and 2009.
The findings, based on interviews with 180,000 individuals including 30,003 from the UK, found similar trends in other leading G7 economies. Britain differed however in that the number of previously established entrepreneurs has remained unchanged for the past four years unlike the US and most other G7 narions where it has declined.
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