Businesses in Scotland: 2023

Ownership (registered businesses only)

This publication classifies registered private sector businesses according to ownership. They can be either ‘UK owned - Scotland based’, ‘UK owned - Rest of the UK (RUK) based’ or ‘Abroad-owned’.

Businesses with their ultimate base outside Scotland are either RUK based or Abroad-owned. As at March 2023, these businesses represented 3.4% of businesses. They also accounted for 34.8% of employment and 52.4% of turnover.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, the number of Abroad-owned businesses increased from 3,155 to 3,315. This meant that Abroad-owned businesses operating in Scotland again outnumbered RUK based businesses. There were 2,550 RUK based businesses as at March 2023. Abroad-owned businesses also provided more Scottish jobs than RUK based businesses.

Figure 5: Abroad-owned businesses provided more Scottish jobs than RUK based businesses as at March 2023.

Private sector jobs in Scotland, by business ownership, 2010 to 2023.

Source: Businesses in Scotland 2023 from the Scottish Government.  For Figure 5 data see table 3.

As stated before, 34.8% of private sector employment was in businesses with their ultimate base outside Scotland. We can break this down further. 15.4% of Scottish private sector employment was in businesses with their ultimate base in the RUK. 19.4% of Scottish private sector employment was in Abroad-owned businesses. The share of employment in Abroad-owned businesses varies by industry sector. For example, 39.7% of ‘Information and communication’ employment was in Abroad-owned businesses. In comparison, 3.3% of ‘Real estate activities’ employment was in Abroad-owned businesses.

Figure 6: As at March 2023, 39.7% of ‘Information and communication’ employment was in Abroad-owned businesses.

Share of employment by ownership and industry sector, as at March 2023.

Source: Businesses in Scotland 2023 from the Scottish Government.  For Figure 6 data see table 3.

As at March 2023, there were 1,355 EU Abroad-owned businesses operating in Scotland. These businesses employed 132,970 people and generated a turnover of over £37 billion. This was 38.0% of all turnover from Abroad-owned registered businesses in Scotland.

We can also look at individual countries. USA-owned businesses accounted for the highest share of Scotland’s Abroad-owned businesses, employment and turnover. As at March 2023, there were 690 USA-owned businesses operating in Scotland. These businesses employed 107,260 people and generated a turnover of over £33 billion (33.8%).