Standing view · business · County Durham
mixed, held with tentative confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Business births in County Durham fell from 495 in the first quarter of 2025 to 405 in the second, 390 in the fourth and 400 in the second quarter of 2026, with the last of those still recorded as unfavourable against the usual pattern for that quarter. No figure for closures is published, so the net change in the business base cannot be established. There were 1,775 businesses employing between five and nine people in 2025 and 10 employing 1,000 or more. Membership organisations employed 1,750 people in 2024 and computer and household goods repair 25.
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 County Durham. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business births | 2025-03 | improving |
| Business births | 2025-06 | deteriorating |
| Business births | 2025-12 | deteriorating |
| Business births | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 94 : Activities of membership organisations | 2024 | — |
| 95 : Repair of computers and personal and household goods | 2024 | — |
| Businesses employing 1000+ or more people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 5 to 9 people | 2025 | — |