Standing view · business · North Wales
falling, held with established confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026.
Businesses employing 20 to 49 people in North Wales has been falling, across two consecutive years. The band stood at 740 in 2025 and 780 in 2026, recorded as falling in both against the usual pattern. Running the other way, businesses employing 100 to 249 people was 105 in 2025 and businesses employing 10 to 19 people 1,645 in 2026, both rising. There were 3,240 employing 5 to 9 people and 30,870 business sites in 2025, and 25,920 businesses and 31,200 business sites in 2026. Two falling readings against two rising, with the site count up.
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 North Wales. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses employing 100 to 249 people | 2025 | rising |
| Businesses employing 20 to 49 people | 2025 | falling |
| Businesses employing 10 to 19 people | 2026 | rising |
| Businesses employing 20 to 49 people | 2026 | falling |
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 5 to 9 people | 2025 | — |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |
| Businesses | 2026 | — |
| Business sites | 2026 | — |