Aberdeen, Scotland

What Aberdeen UK is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 6,596 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.

6,596 businesses on file · 112 trades · 104 sectors · registry population 230,180 · built from geonet.aberdeen on 2026-11-07

Businesses6,596
100% carry coordinates
Specialised in12
trades above the national pattern
Places of worship43
Franchise brands61
already operating here

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Aberdeen UK → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.

1

The local economy

What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.

Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.

The two biggest markets here

Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.

Business density28.7
businesses per 1,000 residents, against the registry population of 230,180
Breadth of the base338
broad — 82 industry groups, top three 21.8%
Survival the mix implies56%
at five years, against 51.4% for all private establishments
Coded to NAICS26.1%
of which 64% unambiguous

What this city is specialised in

Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 2 UK metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.

The base against the entry screen

Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.

Enter
20.6%
355 businesses
Caution
58.2%
1,003 businesses
Structure decides
21.1%
364 businesses
Not screened
0%
0 businesses

How to read the survival figure

Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.

Weighted over 99.5% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And what it does not measure

A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.

2

Who lives here, and who the city is for

The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.

No census subdivision is mapped for uk-aberdeen in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.

3

The communities the register shows

A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.

CommunityInstitutions WorshipTrade Where it shows
Scottish 8 1 33
Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency · Scottish Horse Regimental Association · Scottish Fishermens Federation
Chinese 1 — 11
trade on Holburn Street (2)
Aberdeen Chinese Women Association
Dutch 1 — 4
Dutch School Aberdeen
French 1 — 4
Total French School
Thai — — 9
trade on Union Street (2)
Italian — — 4
Greek — — 1
Swedish — — 1
Turkish — — 1
Jewish — — 1
Irish — — 1
4

Where the communities are

Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.

Chinese

trade on Holburn Street (2)
5

What the city is made of

Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 6,596 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.

SectorBusinesses ShareWhat is in it
Construction 203 3.1% plumbing (44) · machinery (38) · painting (37) · roofing (29) · heating and cooling (19) · electrician (16) · flooring (9) · carpet (5)
Energy 168 2.5% petroleum (135) · natural gas (31) · pipelines (2)
engineer 166 2.5%
Business 164 2.5% association (48) · accounting (47) · consulting (33) · bank (12) · government (8) · foundation (6) · auction (5) · vending (3)
Living 163 2.5% cleaning (47) · place of worship (43) · property (16) · appliances (16) · fire safety (12) · veterinary (11) · furniture (8) · daycare (5)
Dining 156 2.4% restaurant (65) · fast food (55) · pizza (23) · chinese restaurant (6) · pubs (4) · steakhouse (1) · bank (1) · diner (1)
Education 145 2.2% school (88) · library (48) · garden (7) · writing (2)
equipment 101 1.5%
Automotive 99 1.5% autos (83) · tires (8) · auto repair (6) · bank (1) · scooter (1)
Travel 92 1.4% hotel (49) · travel agent (35) · motel (3) · parking (3) · truck rental (1) · airline (1)
Retail 90 1.4% flowers (29) · photography (21) · jeweler (10) · pet supply (6) · department store (6) · gifts (5) · antiques (4) · bank (3)
Finance 81 1.2% insurance (32) · bank (30) · mortgage (19)
advertising 81 1.2%
consulting 78 1.2%
construction 74 1.1%
Food 70 1.1% baker (34) · catering (12) · grocer (10) · seafood (9) · ice cream (3) · fruit (1) · bank (1)
legal 63 1%
guesthouses 58 0.9%
beautysalons 57 0.9%
bars 54 0.8%
6

The franchises already here

Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.

32 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.

BrandCategory HereWorldwide
Royal Bank bank 9 —
Salvation Army retail 4 —
Snappy Tomato Pizza pizza 4 75
Pizza Hut pizza 3 10,000
Big Boy food 2 —
Costa Coffee coffee 2 755
Baskin Robbins dessert 1 2,800
Britannia Hotels budgethotel 1 —
Budget Rent A Car car 1 1,900
Burger King fastfood 1 11,000
Carlson Wagonlit Travel travel 1 4,300
Cartridge World retail 1 1,400
Cash Converters retail 1 16
Disney Store retail 1 —
Flight Centre travel 1 1,500
Furniture Medic specialty 1 600
Holiday Inn businesshotel 1 —
IKON Office Solutions retail 1 400
La Senza lingerie 1 —
Laura Ashley retail 1 —
Petro Canada fuel 1 1,512
Pizza Pizza pizza 1 313
Royal Mail post 1 14,300
St. John retail 1 —
The Body Shop retail 1 —
Thomas Cook travel 1 700
Toys "R" Us retail 1 1,400
Virgin Megastores retail 1 120
Whittard of Chelsea retail 1 —
Limited name only retail 10 —
Somerfield name only supermarket 5 1,132
Farmfoods name only supermarket 4 300
Ardene name only retail 3 —
Manor name only retail 3 —
Safeway name only supermarket 3 1,767
Debenhams name only retail 2 126
Europcar name only car 2 2,825
Halfords name only retail 2 420
Mothercare name only retail 2 —
Starbucks name only coffee 2 3,500
Burton name only retail 1 —
Champion name only supermarket 1 1,000
Fareway name only supermarket 1 95
FastFrame name only specialty 1 300
HESS name only fuel 1 1,250
HSBC name only bank 1 —
Kingfisher name only home 1 680
Ledgers name only specialty 1 —
Londis name only supermarket 1 2,100
Makro name only home 1 33
Midas name only auto 1 1,800
Mitsubishi name only auto 1 —
Morrisons name only supermarket 1 368
Primark name only retail 1 160
Stitches name only retail 1 —
SuperCuts name only inc 1 2,000
Tesco name only retail 1 1,780
Tiffany name only retail 1 150
Toyota name only car 1 —
Travelodge name only economyhotel 1 —
Waterstones name only retail 1 193
7

Real estate as a local trade

Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.

Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.

Selling homes

5312
29 firms · LQ 1.88

Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.

Named in the register
  • Calaw Properties Aberdeen — 40 Rubislaw Park Road
  • Carden Homes — 22 Rubislaw den North; Aberdeen
  • Crionna Investments — 1 Craigiebuckler Drive
  • Democa Properties — 21 Braeside Avenue
  • Holburn Properties — 26 Seafield Drive West
  • Jilona — 27 Deemount Road
  • Keith Main Developments — 20 Bone Accord Square
  • Locktray — 70 Duthie Terrace
  • Maryfield Nursing Homes — 2 Bon Accord Crescent
  • Rossnow Leisure Aberdeen — Beach Promenade
  • Rubislaw Land Co — 8 Westholme Avenue; Aberdeen
  • Scotoil Properties — Sandilands Centre; Links Road
  • Stewart Estates — 1 Great Western Road
  • The Shiprow Development Co — 100 Union Street

Owning and letting

5311
1 firms · LQ 0.5

Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.

Named in the register
  • Skene Investments Aberdeen — Rubislaw den House; 23 Rubislaw den North

Managing for owners

5313
16 firms · LQ 2.38

Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.

Named in the register
  • Aberdeen Property Leasing — Rosemount House; 138-140 Rosemount Place
  • Besthunt — 18-22 Guild Street
  • First Lease Direct — 14 Rubislaw Terrace Lane
  • G and J Investments Aberdeen — 27 John Street
  • Hanover Scotland Housing Association — 17 Strachan Mill Court; Leadside Road
  • Highfield Property Investments — 25 Anderson Drive
  • Homeguard Leasing — 115 Rosemount Place
  • Marnox Properties — 42 Queens Road
  • Mirabel U K — 18 Gordon Place; Bridge of Don
  • North East Kitchen Design Studios — Denmore Road; Bridge of Don
  • Property Maintenence Services — 217 Deeside Gardens
  • Regent Quay Development Co — 13 James Street
  • Sentinel Properties — 4 Kirkbrae Drive; Cults
  • Victoria Restaurants Aberdeen — 140 Union Street

Building new homes

2361
3 firms · LQ 1.58

Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.

Named in the register
  • Leslie A Fearn — 7 Slains Lane; Bridge of Don
  • Marywell Park Homes — Nigg
  • R Davidson Joiners and Builders — 68a Countesswells Road

Financing it

5222
19 firms · LQ 1.3

Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.

Named in the register
  • Aberdeen Independence Mortgages Services — 32 Ashgrove Road
  • Aberdeen Mortgage Bureau — 9 Crown Street
  • Aberdeen Mortgage Management — 489 Union Street
  • Capital Mortgage Connections — Unit 1/Deemouth Business Centre
  • Direct Mortgages Services — 431 Great Northern Road
  • First Mortgage Shop — 5 Holburn Street
  • Mortgage Arrangement Services — Victoria House
  • Mortgagesreasy — 441 Union Street
  • Telephone Mortgage Service — Suite 4; 32 Ashgrove Road
  • Telephone Mortgages — Suite 6
  • The Aberdeen Mortgage Centre — 47 Victoria Road; Torry
  • The Aberdeen Mortgage Centre — 243 George Street
  • The Mortgage Shop — 441 Union Street
  • The Mortgage Shop — 47 Union Street

On "how many doors"

How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.

8

Work on the go, mobile services

The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.

A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 320 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.

The 320 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.

home services

Accessible Home Renovations Air Filtration & Purifier Installation Short-Term Rental Turnover Appliance Installation Artificial Turf Installation Babyproofing & Safety Installs Electric Baseboard Heater Installation Basement Renovation Bathroom Fan Replacement & Installation Bathroom Renovation BBQ Cleaning Blinds & Shutters Installation Cabinet Refacing Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Carpet Installation Caulking & Sealing Ceiling Fan Installation Ceiling Design & Repair Central Vacuum Installation Countertop Installation Custom Closet Design & Installation Decorative Rock & Gravel Deep Cleaning Drain Cleaning Dryer Vent Cleaning & Hose Installation Drywall Repair Air Duct & Furnace Cleaning Electrical Inspection Electrical Panel & Breaker Upgrade Errand Running EV Charger Installation & Service Exterior Painting Faucet Installation Fence & Deck Staining Furnace & Air Conditioner Installation Furnace & AC Repair Furniture Assembly Garden Weeding & Maintenance Grocery Pickup & Delivery Gutter Cleaning Handyman (General Repairs) Hardwood Flooring Installation Hedge & Shrub Trimming Home Project Design Consultation House Cleaning House Sitting HVAC Tune-Up & Maintenance Insulation Installation Interior Painting Junk Removal & Dump Runs Kitchen Design Consultation Kitchen Renovation Laminate & Vinyl Flooring Installation Landscape Design & Planting Lawn Aeration & Seeding Lawn Leveling Lawn Mowing Fall Leaf Cleanup Light Fixture, Switch & Outlet Installation Material Take-off & Estimate Move-In / Move-Out Cleaning Moving Help (Labour Only) Moving with Truck Office Cleaning Outdoor Blinds & Shades Personal Shopper Picture & Mirror Hanging Pipe Insulation Plaster Wall Repair Pot Light Installation Pressure Washing Move Things Around the House Wiring Upgrade & Rewiring Driveway & Sidewalk Salting Shelving & Closet Organizer Installation Shower Valve Replacement Sink Installation Smart Camera & Doorbell Installation Smoke & CO Alarm Installation Snow Shovelling & Removal Sod Installation Lawn Sprinkler Installation Irrigation Repair & Maintenance Packing & Unpacking Sump Pump Installation & Replacement Smart Thermostat Installation Tile Installation Toilet Installation Toilet Repair Interior Trim & Baseboard Repair TV & Picture Mounting Wall & Ceiling Texturing Wall Panels & Accent Walls Wallpaper Installation & Removal Wardrobe Styling Water Damage Extraction Water Heater Installation (Tank & Tankless) Water Softener & Filtration Water Valve Replacement Weed Control Window AC Installation Window Cleaning Window Film Installation Spring & Fall Yard Cleanup
9

Schools and colleges

wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.

InstitutionTypeStudentsFounded
Aberdeen University — 1495

In the business register

Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.

school 88daycare 5
10

Health and care

What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.

Medical clinics3
Pharmacies2
Dental practices11

Matched on the name "hospital"

  • Airyhall Day Hospital — Springfield Road
  • Albyn Hospital — 21-24 Albyn Place
  • PDSA Pet Aid Hospital — 26-30 Fraser Place
  • Abbotswell Animal Hospital — 28 Abbotswell Road
  • The Robson Veterinary Hospital — Lawrencekirk Business Park; Aberdeen Road

geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.

14

What this record cannot tell you

Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.

  • No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
  • wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
  • No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
  • 0.1% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.

Built from

  • geonet.aberdeen — the local business register
  • wander.regions — city name, population, metro
  • search.local — trait vocabulary and the come-to-you services
  • search.cozfranchises — 2,024 franchise brands