Standing view · business · Worthing
deteriorating, held with established confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Business births in Worthing rose to 145 in the first quarter of 2025, then fell to 100 in the second and 85 in the first quarter of 2026. Closures rose to 130 in the second quarter of 2025, then fell to 90 in the second quarter of 2026, just above formations. Falling formations is the unfavourable part here; closures ended the period lower. There were 190 businesses employing between 10 and 19 people in 2025, and membership organisations employed 100 people in 2024.
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 Worthing. 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 deaths | 2025-06 | deteriorating |
| Business births | 2026-03 | deteriorating |
| Business deaths | 2026-06 | improving |
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 | — |
| Businesses employing 10 to 19 people | 2025 | — |