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Companies in Southampton

Southampton is the 20th biggest place on the UK company register, with 25,573 live companies, or 0.4% of the UK total. 2,986 of those were formed in 2025. 2,063 (8.1%) have a proposal to strike off on file, above the UK figure of 7.3%. Compared with the UK as a whole, Southampton stands out for repair and maintenance of ships and boats: 99 companies, 10.4 times the national share.

What Southampton has more of than the rest of the UK

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

  • Repair and maintenance of ships and boats (99 companies)10.4×
  • Building of pleasure and sporting boats (30 companies)9.3×
  • Service activities incidental to water transportation (24 companies)5.7×
  • Sea and coastal passenger water transport (16 companies)3.5×
  • Manufacture of electronic measuring, testing etc. equipment, not for industrial process control (18 companies)2.9×

Biggest trades in Southampton

Live Southampton 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
2012500
2013662
2014751
2015833
2016913
20171,045
20181,142
20191,369
20201,211
20211,230
20221,412
20231,686
20242,022
20252,986
20262,672

Oldest active companies in Southampton

  1. Camelot EstatesFormed 1871
  2. Cosens and CompanyFormed 1876
  3. Lankester and SonFormed 1889
  4. Hampshire Lease CompanyFormed 1894
  5. White & Co PlcFormed 1897

Funny company names registered in Southampton

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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