Birmingham, United Kingdom

What Birmingham UK is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 23,634 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.

23,634 businesses on file · 140 trades · 118 sectors · registry population 1,144,900 · built from geonet.birminghamuk on 2026-11-07

Businesses23,634
0% carry coordinates
Specialised in10
trades above the national pattern
Places of worship198
Franchise brands97
already operating here

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Birmingham 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 density20.6
businesses per 1,000 residents, against the registry population of 1,144,900
Breadth of the base321
broad — 93 industry groups, top three 21.1%
Survival the mix implies56.7%
at five years, against 51.4% for all private establishments
Coded to NAICS22.4%
of which 70.6% 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.

Thin against the national pattern

Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.

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
28.4%
1,504 businesses
Caution
53.3%
2,824 businesses
Structure decides
18.3%
969 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 98.8% 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-birmingham 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
Islamic 5 1 12
British Association Of Muslims · Bangladesh Islamic and Social Organisation · Islamic Welfare Association
Irish 2 — 9
Cara Irish Housing Association · Cara Irish Housing Association
Jewish 2 1 1
Birmingham Jewish Association · Birmingham Jewish Community Care
Chinese 1 1 33
Chinese Evangelical Church
South Asian 1 1 12
trade on Graham Street (2) · Waverley Road (2)
Council Of Sikh Gurdwarars The
Welsh 1 — 1
Welsh House Farm Community School
Serbian 1 1 —
Serbian Orthodox Church Of The Holy Prince Lazar
Nigerian 1 — —
United Nigerian Welfare Association
Polish — — 34
trade on Lombard Street (2)
Scottish — — 11
French — — 10
Dutch — — 9
Thai — — 6
Italian — — 6
Caribbean — — 6
Greek — — 3
Spanish-speaking — — 3
Swiss — — 3
Vietnamese — — 2
Danish — — 2
German — — 2
Japanese — — 1
Russian — — 1
Norwegian — — 1
Arabic-speaking — — 1
Indigenous — — 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.

South Asian

trade on Graham Street (2) · Waverley Road (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 23,634 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.

SectorBusinesses ShareWhat is in it
Living 591 2.5% place of worship (198) · cleaning (121) · furniture (97) · appliances (63) · fire safety (46) · property (29) · veterinary (20) · apartment (5)
Retail 587 2.5% jeweler (303) · flowers (120) · photography (78) · gifts (24) · pet supply (19) · department store (12) · toys (8) · antiques (6)
Construction 559 2.4% plumbing (148) · roofing (92) · machinery (88) · painting (69) · heating and cooling (50) · carpet (32) · electrician (31) · flooring (22)
advertising 516 2.2% bankruptcy (1)
Education 515 2.2% school (429) · library (59) · garden (26) · writing (1)
Business 506 2.1% association (190) · accounting (172) · government (63) · consulting (43) · foundation (11) · auction (8) · bank (8) · vending (6)
Dining 384 1.6% restaurant (265) · pizza (58) · fast food (37) · diner (18) · pubs (4) · steakhouse (1) · chinese restaurant (1)
Automotive 294 1.2% autos (203) · tires (64) · auto repair (9) · auto parts (8) · scooter (4) · detailing (3) · bankruptcy (1) · motorcycle (1)
engineer 273 1.2%
Travel 241 1% travel agent (135) · hotel (89) · parking (9) · airline (4) · motel (4)
Food 237 1% grocer (113) · catering (54) · baker (46) · fruit (12) · ice cream (6) · seafood (5) · deli (1)
cafes 235 1% insurance (1)
Finance 198 0.8% insurance (104) · bank (46) · mortgage (43) · loans (3) · credit union (1) · garden (1)
housewares 166 0.7%
legal 166 0.7%
electric 166 0.7%
construction 164 0.7% landscaping (1)
Media 149 0.6% signs (87) · advertising (62)
Logistics 149 0.6% storage (61) · packaging (39) · truck transportation (25) · forklifts (15) · railroad (8) · towing (1)
emergency 147 0.6%
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.

53 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 Mail post 14 14,300
St. John retail 10 —
Salvation Army retail 9 —
Pizza Hut pizza 5 10,000
Burger King fastfood 4 11,000
Royal Bank bank 4 —
Cash Converters retail 3 16
Costa Coffee coffee 3 755
Holiday Inn businesshotel 3 —
The Body Shop retail 3 —
Thomas Cook travel 3 700
Whittard of Chelsea retail 3 —
Allied Irish Bank bank 2 —
Blockbuster Video video 2 5,900
Crowne Plaza upscalehotel 2 —
Enterprise Rent A Car car 2 5,400
Flight Centre travel 2 1,500
House of Fraser retail 2 —
Jack in the Box fastfood 2 2,079
JD Sports retail 2 400
Laura Ashley retail 2 —
Pizza Factory pizza 2 135
Abbey National bank 1 —
Alamo Rent A Car car 1 1,000
Bargain Shop retail 1 165
Bob Evans food 1 600
Budget Rent A Car car 1 1,900
Carlson Wagonlit Travel travel 1 4,300
Comfort Inn familyhotel 1 —
Days Inn economyhotel 1 —
Disney Store retail 1 —
Furniture Medic specialty 1 600
Hard Rock Cafe food 1 140
Harvey Nichols retail 1 10
Hertz Rent A Car car 1 7,000
LA Fitness fitness 1 —
La Senza lingerie 1 —
Merry Maids cleaner 1 970
Nationwide Auto Centres auto 1 —
Outback Steakhouse food 1 —
Signs Now specialty 1 —
Snappy Tomato Pizza pizza 1 75
Sunglass Hut retail 1 —
Wyevale Garden Centres retail 1 100
Dillons name only supermarket 23 18
Manor name only retail 18 —
Michaels name only retail 12 805
Limited name only retail 8 —
Burton name only retail 7 —
Tesco name only retail 7 1,780
Safeway name only supermarket 6 1,767
Somerfield name only supermarket 6 1,132
Starbucks name only coffee 6 3,500
HSBC name only bank 4 —
Kingfisher name only home 4 680
Roots name only retail 4 145
Coach name only luggage 3 —
Hallmark name only greetingcards 3 5,600
Renaissance name only upscalehotel 3 —
Waterstones name only retail 3 193
ASDA name only supermarket 2 243
Benetton name only retail 2 —
Blackwell name only book 2 6
Londis name only supermarket 2 2,100
MANGO name only retail 2 850
Midas name only auto 2 1,800
Mothercare name only retail 2 —
Progressive name only supermarket 2 150
SuperCuts name only inc 2 2,000
Volkswagen name only — 2 —
Armani name only fashion 1 —
AutoZone name only auto 1 3,800
Borders name only book 1 559
Carrefour name only supermarket 1 2,455
Champion name only supermarket 1 1,000
Europcar name only car 1 2,825
Halfords name only retail 1 420
HomeBase locations name only retail 1 320
Honda name only car 1 —
Hyatt name only upscalehotel 1 —
Intersport name only retail 1 60
Jacob name only retail 1 200
Lacoste name only — 1 —
Lexus name only luxurycar 1 —
Marriott name only upscalehotel 1 2,800
Mitsubishi name only auto 1 —
MONTBLANC name only retail 1 —
Nissan name only auto 1 —
Origins name only haircare 1 —
Pavilions name only supermarket 1 32
Powells name only book 1 9
Primark name only retail 1 160
Sears name only inc 1 2,300
Stuckeys name only convenience 1 200
Talbots name only retail 1 592
Travelodge name only economyhotel 1 —
Waitrose name only supermarket 1 184
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
7 firms · LQ 0.15

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

Named in the register
  • Barratt Last and Co — 307 Chester Road; Castle Bromwich
  • British Ensign Builders — 20 Harborne Road; Edgbaston
  • C H and H Developments — 17 Sherbourne Road; Acocks Green
  • Churchills Real Estate — 173 Birchfield Road
  • Local Letting — 31 Harrison Road; Erdington
  • Sisyphus Rock — 135 Sherlock Street; Highgate
  • White Rose Real Estates — George Nott House; 119 Holloway Head

Owning and letting

5311
5 firms · LQ 0.82

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

Named in the register
  • Asquith House Apartments — 19 Portland Road
  • Grange Park Management Zone A — Nettleton House; Calthorpe Road
  • Metropolitan Apartments — 95 Newhall Street
  • Sandpiper Quay Management Co No 1 — 62 Hagley Road; Edgbaston
  • The Millennium Apartments Management Co — 95 Newhall Street

Managing for owners

5313
29 firms · LQ 1.4

Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.

Named in the register
  • Accommodation Link — 59 Station Road; Erdington
  • City Property Management Services
  • D N D Properties — 82 Northwood Street
  • Facilities Maintenance and Management — H R S Indsti Estate; Garretts Grn Lane
  • Haven Property Managements — 3 Bear Hill; Alvechurch
  • J R Estates — 175 Hagley Road
  • Johnson Control Systems — Waterlinks Ho, Richard St, B7
  • Legal Property Services — 141 Sandon Road; Edgbaston
  • Manor Close RMO — 1 St. Michaels Clo Melville Rd, B16
  • Prince Warnes — Unit 4 Newhall Place; 16-17 Newhall Hill
  • Property Fund Management Plc — 6 Vine Terrace; High Street
  • Scriven and Co — 817 Hagley Rd West, B32
  • Symonds Group — 95 Hagley Road
  • Wolfs — Weekin Works; 112-116 Park Hill Road

Building new homes

2361
3 firms · LQ 0.51

Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.

Named in the register
  • Avon Estates — Wythe Hth Mobile Home Pk, Chapel La, 47
  • Chichester Caravans — 309 Hagley Road West
  • John Laing Plc — 41 Landor Street; Bordesley

Financing it

5222
46 firms · LQ 1.02

Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.

Named in the register
  • Apna Home and Mortgage — 399 Alum Rock Road
  • Birmingham Mortgage Co — Central House; 582-586 Kingsbury Road
  • Complete Mortgage Solutions — 65 Qube
  • Full Independent Mortgage Services — 1195 Tyburn Road
  • M Wise Midlands — 52 Station Road; Erdington
  • Manco U K — 590a Kingsbury Road; Erdington
  • Mayfield Mortgage Services — 26 Belwell Lane; Four Oaks
  • Mortgage Cafecouk — 430 Kingstanding Road
  • Mortgage Choices Direct — 406a Birmingham Road; Wylde Grn
  • Platinum Estates and Mortgages — 224 Alum Rock Road
  • Premier Financial Services U K — 1204 Stratford Road; Hall Green
  • Robert May Financial Services — 251 Mary Vale Road; Bourneville
  • The Mortgage Centre — 619 Washwood Heath Road
  • The Mortgage Point — 14 Great Charles St Queensway

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
Aston University University — —
Birmingham University — —
UCB College — —

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 429daycare 4
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 clinics9
Pharmacies4
Dental practices127

Matched on the name "hospital"

  • Bedminster Health Centre — St. John's La, Bedminster
  • Farm Road Health Centre — 32 Farm Road
  • Oscott Health Centre — 4 Oscott School Lane
  • Colehall Health Centre — 1-3 The Corngreaves
  • Horrell Road Health Centre — 29 Horrell Road
  • Birmingham Childrens Hospital Charities — PO Box 12008
  • Birmingham Childrens Hospital N H S Trust — Steelhouse Lane
  • Takhar Dental Health Centre — 643 Kingstanding Rd, 44
  • Tower Hill Health Centre — 25 Tower Hill
  • Highcroft Hospital Staff Social Club — Slade Road
  • Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust — Pathology Laboratory, Binding Site, B15
  • Maypole Health Centre — 10 Sladepool Farm Road
  • Broadmeadow Health Centre — Keynell Covert
  • Woodbourne Priory Hospital — 21 Woodbourne Rd, B17
  • Moseley Hall Hospital — Alcester Road, B13
  • 202 Field Hospital Volunteers — Territorial Army Centre
  • Mobaral Health Centre — 8-12 Cannon Hill Road
  • Moseley Hall Hospital
  • Harvey Road Health Centre — Harvey Road
  • Aston Health Centre — 175 Trinity Road
  • Selly Oak Health Centre — 15 Katie Road
  • Queen Elizabeth Hospital
  • The Ley Hill Health Centre — 65 Holloway
  • Northfield Health Centre — 15 St. Heliers Road
  • Hawkesley Health Centre
  • Hawkesley Health Centre — Health Visitors
  • Home From Hospital Service — City Hospital NHS Trust
  • Laurie Pike Health Centre — 95 Birchfield Road
  • BHBN Hospital Radio — Dudley Rd Hosp, B18
  • Newtown Health Centre — 171 Melbourne Avenue
  • Northcroft Hospital — Reservoir Road; Erdington
  • Queen Elizabeth Hospital — 27 Enfield Close
  • Selly Oak Hospital — Outpatients Appointments; Oak Tree Lane
  • University Hospital Birmingham N H S Trust — Finance Department; P O Box 881
  • The Watch Hospital — Unit K17
  • The John Black Day Hospital — 4 Maple Leaf Drive
  • Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust — Research & Teaching Centre, Bristol Rd Sth, Northfield
  • Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust — Physiotherapy, Bristol Road Sth, Northfield
  • Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust — Orthotics, Bristol Road Sth, Northfield
  • Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust — M.R.I, Bristol Road Sth, Northfield
  • Landrover Hospital — Unit 7/Croft Industrial Estate
  • Sparkbrook Health Centre — Farm Road
  • Chelmsley Hospital — Northgate Centre, Moorend Av, B37
  • Tee Vee Hospital — 109 Clements Road
  • Wythall Dental Health Centre — 217 Station Rd, Wythall
  • Soho Health Centre — Louise 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.
  • 100.0% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.

Built from

  • geonet.birminghamuk — 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