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Companies in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the 5th biggest place on the UK company register, with 61,472 live companies, or 1.1% of the UK total. 5,323 of those were formed in 2025. 3,462 (5.6%) have a proposal to strike off on file, below the UK figure of 7.3%. Compared with the UK as a whole, Edinburgh stands out for activities of tourist guides: 44 companies, 3.5 times the national share.

What Edinburgh has more of than the rest of the UK

Each trade's share of Edinburgh companies, compared with its share across the UK.

  • Activities of tourist guides (44 companies)3.5×
  • Distilling, rectifying and blending of spirits (78 companies)3.5×
  • Pension funding (30 companies)3.3×
  • Fund management activities (146 companies)3.2×
  • Production of electricity (314 companies)2.6×

Biggest trades in Edinburgh

Live Edinburgh companies, by year formed

Only companies still live are counted, so older years look smaller. 2026 stops on 1 November 2026.

20122026
See every year as a table
YearLive companies
20122,468
20132,318
20142,951
20153,897
20164,289
20173,055
20182,396
20192,688
20202,220
20212,588
20222,711
20233,087
20243,645
20255,323
20265,192

Oldest active companies in Edinburgh

  1. Standard Property InvestmentFormed 1871
  2. The Scottish American Investment Company P L CFormed 1873
  3. The Samnuggur Jute Factory CompanyFormed 1874
  4. CalaFormed 1875
  5. The Heritable Securities and Mortgage Investment AssociationFormed 1876

Funny company names registered in Edinburgh

Nearest in size

Town means the post town of the registered address, which isn't always where a company trades. Many companies use an accountant's or formation agent's address. Figures come from Companies House on 1 November 2026.

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