How many hairdressers are there in the UK?

About 50,425 hairdressing and beauty premises are registered across UK local authorities in the ONS Business Counts for 2025. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5.

Why are some counts shown as fewer than 5?

ONS rounds business counts to the nearest 5 so individual businesses cannot be identified. A district showing zero has fewer than about three, not none.

How many charity shops are there in the UK?

Nobody knows. There is no register of charity shops, they usually file under their parent charity rather than as retail, and crowd-sourced maps cover them inconsistently. It is one of the genuine gaps in British statistics.

Home › UK › High street businesses

The high street, counted

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated 21 September 2026 · ONS Business Counts, 2025

How many hairdressers, pubs, gyms and funeral directors each UK local authority has, from the ONS register of business premises. This reaches the trades no statutory register covers.

Every figure here is rounded to the nearest 5. ONS does this to protect individual businesses from being identified, and it changes what the numbers mean. A district shown as <5 has fewer than about three, not none. Small counts carry a large proportional error, so per-head rates below are computed only where a district has at least 25 of something.

Nationally

50,425

hairdressers and beauty salons

29,945

pubs and bars

31,595

licensed restaurants

45,370

takeaways

Most per 10,000 residents

Category	Highest	Per 10k	Lowest	Per 10k
Hairdressers and beauty salons	City of London	44.8	Great Yarmouth	3.5
Pubs and bars	City of London	28.8	Redbridge	0.8
Licensed restaurants	City of London	92.8	Rhondda Cynon Taf	1.2
Takeaways	City of London	35.2	Wokingham	2.9
Bakers and cake shops	Westminster	1.9	Buckinghamshire	0.4
Fitness facilities	Westminster	4.5	Birmingham	0.4
Estate agents	City of London	89.6	Aberdeenshire	0.9
Funeral directors	Newry, Mourne and Down	1.4	Birmingham	0.2
Veterinary practices	Watford	7.0	Leeds	0.4
Second-hand goods shops	Westminster	2.6	Birmingham	0.3

Comparing only the 356-odd districts with enough of each to rank reliably.

The 60 largest districts

District	Population	Hairdressers	Pubs	Licensed	Takeaways	Bakers	Fitness	Estate	Funeral	Veterinary	Second-hand
Birmingham	1,176,960	830	210	410	885	100	50	460	25	10	30
Leeds	840,550	615	335	345	645	65	80	310	25	30	20
Glasgow City	654,330	635	315	440	650	45	60	160	15	15	10
North Yorkshire	639,133	405	605	360	385	60	50	240	35	85	30
Somerset	590,972	290	390	220	295	30	40	175	35	85	20
Manchester	588,256	450	255	395	695	50	40	280	20	10	15
Cornwall	584,782	285	445	435	370	70	45	175	30	40	25
Buckinghamshire	584,296	395	245	225	295	25	70	270	10	40	20
Sheffield	579,517	390	265	230	425	35	50	120	15	15	20
Bradford	557,758	345	220	150	475	50	35	125	15	15	25
County Durham	539,146	365	255	165	410	15	30	95	20	25	10
City of Edinburgh	531,370	405	255	460	385	35	40	165	10	20	25
Wiltshire	526,392	300	310	190	220	20	40	175	15	55	25
Liverpool	507,915	470	265	315	450	30	40	155	10	10	20
Bristol, City of	495,260	335	220	335	345	40	50	145	5	10	20
Kirklees	445,832	290	235	125	370	25	30	130	10	15	20
West Northamptonshire	444,218	275	200	165	225	15	35	145	15	25	15
Cheshire East	425,459	340	255	180	235	25	55	175	20	50	10
Croydon	410,085	335	60	210	295	20	20	160	5	15	15
Barnet	408,087	460	65	300	240	40	45	575	10	15	25
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	405,829	335	85	225	255	20	30	215	5	20	15
Dorset	391,036	230	290	215	215	20	30	155	20	45	20
Ealing	387,072	300	50	200	235	45	30	250	10	15	5
Leicester	383,116	250	90	175	335	50	25	140	5	5	15
Cardiff	381,516	295	110	220	275	20	25	125	5	5	15
North Northamptonshire	379,569	225	115	100	215	15	20	110	5	10	10
Newham	376,542	265	35	160	285	35	20	195	5	5	10
Fife	373,990	215	135	120	215	10	25	55	15	15	5
Cheshire West and Chester	373,951	295	205	140	195	20	30	130	10	50	10
Wakefield	369,450	245	180	90	295	20	20	65	10	5	5
Coventry	364,766	190	75	105	250	25	15	95	5	5	5
East Riding of Yorkshire	360,334	295	235	155	245	15	20	80	20	10	15
Sandwell	352,918	240	130	75	285	25	15	70	10	5	<5
Belfast	352,390	280	100	155	300	40	55	105	20	5	20
Brent	352,201	345	55	220	245	35	30	210	5	10	15
Wigan	347,089	255	165	75	250	25	45	60	10	10	5
North Lanarkshire	343,930	260	90	55	305	10	20	50	5	10	<5
Wandsworth	339,859	320	55	245	190	30	60	245	5	15	15
Bromley	336,048	345	70	185	210	20	45	175	5	25	10
South Lanarkshire	334,330	285	95	110	255	20	35	55	10	20	5
Tower Hamlets	334,240	265	115	285	280	45	45	280	5	10	20
Northumberland	333,975	260	225	175	225	15	25	85	20	20	10
Dudley	333,941	250	145	50	220	20	25	65	10	15	10
Shropshire	333,162	235	310	160	155	10	25	85	15	55	15
Wirral	329,896	265	105	120	225	15	15	70	15	10	15
Enfield	329,400	415	50	160	235	40	20	245	5	5	10
Hillingdon	326,671	255	60	145	240	25	30	155	5	10	10
Nottingham	325,765	215	125	150	230	25	20	95	5	5	10
Doncaster	323,016	240	130	90	245	15	15	60	5	10	5
Redbridge	321,829	250	25	140	250	40	15	300	10	5	5
Central Bedfordshire	321,605	215	125	110	155	15	20	110	10	20	5
Newcastle upon Tyne	320,838	310	140	225	285	15	25	110	10	10	5
Lambeth	314,298	280	125	265	200	20	45	155	<5	10	15
Southwark	312,366	280	115	290	260	25	30	140	5	10	10
Bolton	309,732	250	115	70	275	20	25	80	10	15	<5
Milton Keynes	308,866	205	60	120	170	10	25	150	5	10	10
South Gloucestershire	308,787	155	110	65	135	10	20	85	10	10	5
Stockport	304,879	310	140	135	240	20	25	110	10	10	10
Greenwich	301,225	225	45	135	205	20	15	120	5	10	5
Lewisham	301,037	225	80	155	230	20	20	85	5	10	10

Every district, as a free CSV →

What we cannot tell you

Two categories were dropped from this page because the rounding makes them meaningless at district level. bookshops and gambling and betting both show zero in most districts — 59% and 68% respectively — and that is plainly not true. It is an artefact of rounding small numbers to the nearest 5, not a finding about the country. Publishing a ranking built on it would be publishing noise.

Charity shops are a harder case still. They appear here under second-hand goods retail, but most register under their parent charity's activity instead, so the count misses them. Britain does not really know how many charity shops it has: no register covers them, OpenStreetMap's coverage varies from 44% to 99% depending on category, and this dataset files them elsewhere. That gap is genuine, and worth stating rather than papering over.

Not the same as our food data

These counts are not comparable with our takeaway and restaurant figures, which come from the Food Standards Agency. This dataset counts VAT or PAYE registered business premises; the FSA register covers food premises whether or not they are registered for tax. Bolton has 70 licensed restaurants here and 507 restaurants and cafés in the FSA data. Both are correct, they count different things, and we never put them in the same table.