Standing view · business · Aberdeenshire
mixed, held with tentative confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Business deaths in Aberdeenshire have not moved in one direction. They rose to 260 in the second quarter of 2025, fell to 225 by the first quarter of 2026, then rose again to 280 in the second. Business births moved the other way, improving to 235 in the second quarter of 2025. Because closures and formations point in opposite directions, it is too early to say whether the business base is contracting. The remaining figures are single readings for 2025: 14,195 business sites, and 9,760, 320 and 110 businesses in the three smallest size bands.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Aberdeenshire. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business births | 2025-06 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2025-06 | deteriorating |
| Business deaths | 2026-03 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2026-06 | deteriorating |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 0 to 4 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 20 to 49 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 50 to 99 people | 2025 | — |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |