A recent study of UK self-employment trends has revealed a significant increase in the number of people planning to start their own venture compared to levels witnessed before the pandemic.

The analysis by Novuna Business Cash Flow used Google data to find commonly searched questions about starting a business. The results show that searches for ‘how to start a business’ rose from 33,000 in March 2020 to 45,000 in January 2022, a 36% increase over the two years.

Searches for other key phrases relating to setting up a business had also increased across the same time period. For instance, searches for ‘how to register a business’ jumped by 41%, while ‘how to write a business plan’ and ‘how to get a business loan’ were up by 13% and 10%, respectively.

The researchers also analysed LinkedIn data in order to identify UK self-employment hotspots. This analysis suggests that the city of Bath has the highest percentage of self-employed workers in the UK, with Brighton and Hove, St Albans, Worcester and London also featuring among the top five cities. In contrast, Aberdeen, Coventry and Liverpool were found to have the fewest people working for themselves.