Standing view · business · Derry City and Strabane
deteriorating, held with strong confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
The business base in Derry City and Strabane has been shrinking, and the view is held strongly. Business births were 110 in the quarter to June 2025, 95 in the quarter to September 2025 and 90 in the quarter to December 2025, each recorded as unfavourable against the usual pattern for its quarter, with business deaths of 115 in the quarter to September 2025 also unfavourable. Business deaths of 110 in the quarter to March 2026 was favourable. In 2026 there were 5,755 businesses, 4,560 of them employing 0 to 4 people, and 6,935 business sites. Three consecutive weak birth quarters is the core of it.
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 Derry City and Strabane. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business births | 2025-06 | deteriorating |
| Business births | 2025-09 | deteriorating |
| Business deaths | 2025-09 | deteriorating |
| Business births | 2025-12 | deteriorating |
| Business deaths | 2026-03 | 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses | 2026 | rising |
| Businesses employing 0 to 4 people | 2026 | rising |
| Business sites | 2026 | — |