The Datum Report

Standing view · business · Cardiff

The business base in Cardiff has been growing.

improving, held with established confidence, formed on 5 October 2026 from movements in 2026-06.

Business births in Cardiff numbered 350 in the quarter to December 2025, a favourable movement. Businesses employing 20 to 49 people numbered 400 in 2025. Births is the only measure here with a recorded direction, and it moved favourably in the quarter to December 2025.

How this was decided

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 Cardiff. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.

The measure that formed this view

MeasurePeriodDirection
Business births2025-12improving

Also published on this topic, but not counted

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.

MeasurePeriodSeries
Businesses employing 20 to 49 people2025 —