Standing view · business · Wigan
mixed, held with tentative confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026-06.
Businesses employing 5 to 9 people in Wigan has been falling, while businesses employing 50 to 99 people has been rising. The 5 to 9 band stood at 1,065 in 2025 and the 50 to 99 band at 105 in 2026, with 20 employing 250 to 499 people and 10,775 business sites in 2025. Closures mostly read well: business deaths of 290 in the quarter to June 2025, 255 in the quarter to September 2025 and 225 in the quarter to December 2025 were each favourable, against 325 in the quarter to March 2026.
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 Wigan. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Business deaths | 2025-06 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2025-09 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2025-12 | improving |
| Business deaths | 2026-03 | 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 250 to 499 people | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 5 to 9 people | 2025 | falling |
| Business sites | 2025 | — |
| Businesses employing 50 to 99 people | 2026 | rising |