Edinburgh, Scotland

What Edinburgh is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 16,001 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.

16,001 businesses on file · 126 trades · 117 sectors · registry population 530,000 · built from geonet.edinburgh on 2026-11-07

Businesses16,001
100% carry coordinates
Specialised in10
trades above the national pattern
Places of worship137
Franchise brands85
already operating here

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Edinburgh → — 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 density30.2
businesses per 1,000 residents, against the registry population of 530,000
Breadth of the base376
broad — 91 industry groups, top three 23.6%
Survival the mix implies56.7%
at five years, against 51.4% for all private establishments
Coded to NAICS22.9%
of which 72.8% 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
23.7%
868 businesses
Caution
51.4%
1,886 businesses
Structure decides
25%
916 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-edinburgh 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 53 14 242
institutions on Palmerston Pl (2) · Grosvenor Crescent (2) · Caledonia Ho (2)
trade on George Street (3) · Queen Street (3) · Edinburgh Castle (3) · Rutland Square (3)
Scottish Council Of Independent Schools · Scottish Episcopal Church · Scottish Association of Health Councils
Italian 2 — 9
trade on Bruntsfield Pl (2) · Brougham Place (2)
Ciao Italia Restaurants Associationation · Italian Institute
Chinese 1 — 42
trade on Ratcliffe Ter (2) · Portobello High St (2)
Edinburgh Chinese Elderly Support Association
Thai 1 — 17
Lothain and Border Police Association Club
Polish 1 — 2
Polish Combatant Association
Ukrainian 1 1 1
Ukrainian Catholic Church
French — — 12
Dutch — — 8
trade on Nicolson Street (2)
German — — 6
Spanish-speaking — — 4
Russian — — 4
Danish — — 4
Turkish — — 4
trade on Fountainbridge (2)
Islamic — — 4
trade on Potterrow (2)
Irish — — 4
Caribbean — — 3
Indigenous — — 2
trade on Rutland Square (2)
Japanese — — 1
South Asian — — 1
Brazilian — — 1
Swedish — — 1
Persian — — 1
Arabic-speaking — — 1
Jewish — — 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.

Scottish

institutions on Palmerston Pl (2) · Grosvenor Crescent (2) · Caledonia Ho (2)
trade on George Street (3) · Queen Street (3) · Edinburgh Castle (3) · Rutland Square (3)

Italian

trade on Bruntsfield Pl (2) · Brougham Place (2)

Chinese

trade on Ratcliffe Ter (2) · Portobello High St (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 16,001 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.

SectorBusinesses ShareWhat is in it
Business 511 3.2% association (232) · accounting (104) · consulting (83) · government (41) · foundation (23) · auction (11) · bank (9) · cemetary (4)
Dining 435 2.7% restaurant (288) · fast food (90) · pizza (35) · pubs (7) · diner (7) · chinese restaurant (5) · steakhouse (1) · orchard (1)
Living 386 2.4% place of worship (137) · cleaning (65) · property (47) · furniture (45) · appliances (31) · veterinary (20) · fire safety (16) · apartment (10)
Construction 367 2.3% plumbing (128) · painting (76) · roofing (69) · electrician (25) · heating and cooling (17) · machinery (17) · carpet (13) · flooring (11)
advertising 313 2%
Travel 287 1.8% hotel (153) · travel agent (114) · parking (8) · motel (8) · bnb (2) · bank (2)
Retail 278 1.7% photography (80) · flowers (70) · jeweler (41) · antiques (26) · gifts (24) · department store (14) · convenience (8) · pet supply (7)
Education 274 1.7% school (206) · library (47) · garden (19) · writing (2)
engineer 211 1.3%
Finance 186 1.2% bank (79) · insurance (65) · mortgage (41) · credit union (1)
cafes 174 1.1% fruit (1)
Automotive 161 1% autos (135) · tires (13) · scooter (6) · auto repair (5) · auction (1) · motorcycle (1)
consulting 154 1%
legal 149 0.9%
Food 146 0.9% grocer (57) · catering (42) · baker (30) · seafood (11) · ice cream (4) · fruit (2)
construction 141 0.9% landscaping (1)
bars 138 0.9%
guesthouses 126 0.8%
beautysalons 113 0.7%
Media 87 0.5% advertising (53) · signs (30) · printing (3) · books (1)
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.

46 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 20 —
Pizza Hut pizza 13 10,000
Royal Mail post 12 14,300
Salvation Army retail 12 —
Blockbuster Video video 5 5,900
Flight Centre travel 5 1,500
Thomas Cook travel 5 700
Burger King fastfood 4 11,000
Costa Coffee coffee 4 755
Holiday Inn businesshotel 4 —
Laura Ashley retail 4 —
St. John retail 4 —
The Body Shop retail 4 —
Cartridge World retail 3 1,400
Budget Rent A Car car 2 1,900
DHL Express post 2 6,500
Disney Store retail 2 —
Enterprise Rent A Car car 2 5,400
House of Fraser retail 2 —
Sunglass Hut retail 2 —
Thomas Pink retail 2 60
Whittard of Chelsea retail 2 —
Allied Irish Bank bank 1 —
Banana Republic retail 1 —
Best Western businesshotel 1 4,200
Cash Converters retail 1 16
Crystal Glass auto 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
Holiday Inn Express familyhotel 1 —
JD Sports retail 1 400
La Senza lingerie 1 —
Merry Maids cleaner 1 970
Nine West retail 1 —
Pizza Factory pizza 1 135
Sign-A-Rama specialty 1 800
Vue Cinemas entertainment 1 55
Starbucks name only coffee 13 3,500
Safeway name only supermarket 10 1,767
Tesco name only retail 8 1,780
Coach name only luggage 7 —
Manor name only retail 7 —
Farmfoods name only supermarket 5 300
Limited name only retail 5 —
Roots name only retail 4 145
Burton name only retail 3 —
HomeBase locations name only retail 3 320
HSBC name only bank 3 —
Progressive name only supermarket 3 150
Waterstones name only retail 3 193
ASDA name only supermarket 2 243
Debenhams name only retail 2 126
Diana name only supermarket 2 3
Europcar name only car 2 2,825
Halfords name only retail 2 420
Londis name only supermarket 2 2,100
Mothercare name only retail 2 —
Pavilions name only supermarket 2 32
Renaissance name only upscalehotel 2 —
Somerfield name only supermarket 2 1,132
Armani name only fashion 1 —
Benetton name only retail 1 —
Blackwell name only book 1 6
Borders name only book 1 559
Esprit name only retail 1 —
FastFrame name only specialty 1 300
Greyhound name only travel 1 —
Hooters name only food 1 435
Jacob name only retail 1 200
Jeep name only suv 1 —
Khalsa name only fuel 1 —
Kingfisher name only home 1 680
Makro name only home 1 33
Marriott name only upscalehotel 1 2,800
Michaels name only retail 1 805
Orvis name only retail 1 36
Peebles name only retail 1 —
Raffles name only luxuryhotel 1 8
Rockport name only retail 1 —
Sheraton name only upscalehotel 1 —
Stitches name only retail 1 —
Toyota name only car 1 —
Travelodge name only economyhotel 1 —
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
35 firms · LQ 1.07

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

Named in the register
  • Ashford Land — 39 Castle Street
  • Chart Store — 15a Glencairn Crescent
  • Cherrytrees Development Co — 8 Manor Place
  • Grovemall — McLeod House; 119 Montgomery Street
  • Hartfield Homes Livingston — Pentland House; Damhead
  • Hbj 257 — 19 Ainslie Place
  • Makasi — 1 Cluny Gardens
  • Marland Investments — 31 Alva Street
  • Millburn Estates — Millburn Tower; Gogar
  • Randolph Hill Properties — 26a St Johns Road
  • Remax Real Estate Corstorphine — 207 St. Johns Road
  • Rolland Properties — Newbridge Industrial Estate; Cliftonhall Road
  • Rutland Scotland — 31a Rutland Square
  • West Castle Properties — 61 North Castle Street

Owning and letting

5311
10 firms · LQ 2.36

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

Named in the register
  • Apartment The — 7-13 Barclay Pl, 10
  • Cannon Court Apartments — 20 Cannon Mills
  • Cbi Investments — 45 Frederick Street
  • Edinburgh Central Apartments — 23 Home Street
  • Edinburgh City Homes Two — 12 Regent Terrace
  • Fountain Court Apartments — 123 Grove Street
  • Linton Hay Properties — Murieston Road
  • Royal Garden Apartments — 2 York Buildings
  • Viewforth Apartments — 79 Gilmore Place
  • West End Apartments — 2 Learmonth Terrace

Managing for owners

5313
47 firms · LQ 3.28

Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.

Named in the register
  • Abbotsford Scot — 11 Grove Street
  • Belvoir Property Management — 4b Howe St, EH3
  • Centrex — 10 Charlotte Square
  • Dunalastair Estates — 9-11 Blair Street; Royal Mile
  • Factotum — 40a Howe St, EH3
  • Greyfriars Property Services — 29-30 George IV Bridge
  • Hyskeir — 111 George Street
  • Irene Buchan Residential — 1 Rothesay Place
  • Land Search Scotland — 9 Atholl Crescent
  • Merrick Management Services — 1 Hill Street
  • Ryden Lettings — 100 Hanover Street
  • Stonelime Investments — 3 Barclay Place
  • The Flat Co — 60 Castle Street
  • Trillium Group — Argyll Ho, Lady Lawson St, 3

Building new homes

2361
3 firms · LQ 0.74

Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.

Named in the register
  • Format Building Design — Holyrood Business Park; 146 Duddingston Road West
  • Meadowhead — 38 Mortonhall Gate
  • Trinity Roofing — 5 London Road

Financing it

5222
41 firms · LQ 1.31

Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.

Named in the register
  • All Types Of Mortgages — Cbc House
  • Calm Mortgage Consultancy — 15 Silverknowes Southway
  • Dunedin Mortgage Co — 22 Rutland Street
  • First Mortgage Direct — 6 Home Street
  • First Mortgage Direct — 172 St. Johns Road
  • Moneyquest — 6 Randolph Crescent
  • Mortgage Advantage — Pentland View House/Damhead
  • Mortgage Advisory Centre — 30 Walker Street
  • Options and Choices Mortgages — 13 Grove Street
  • Supreme Financial Services — 19/3 Palmerston Place
  • Telemortgages — 5 West Maitland Street
  • Telemortgages Tollcross — 48 Earl Grey Street
  • The Clarkson Hill Mortgage Co — 12 Torphichen Street
  • The Mortgage Advice Bureau — 77 George 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
Edinburgh University — 1582
Heriot-Watt University — —
Heriot-Wyatt University — —
Heriot-Watt (HW) University — —

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 206daycare 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 clinics4
Pharmacies2
Dental practices57

Matched on the name "hospital"

  • Trades Maiden Hospital — 61 Melville Street
  • Stockbridge Health Centre — Stockbridge Health Centre
  • Marchmont Complementary Health Centre — 30 Marchmont Road
  • Northern Hospital Supplies — 41 Spylaw St
  • PDSA Pet Aid Hospital — 2B Hutchison Crossway
  • Morningside Natural Health Centre — 5
  • Corstophine Hospital — 136 Corstorphine Road
  • City Hospital — Green Bank Dv, EH10
  • Roodlans General Hospital — Hospital Rd, Haddington
  • Leith Hospital — 6 Mill La, EH6
  • Western General Hospital — Crewe Rd Sth
  • Royal Victoria Hospital — 13 Craigleith Road
  • Southfield Hospital — 117 Lasswade Rd, EH16
  • Corstophine Hospital — 136 Corstophine Rd, EH12
  • Sighthill Health Centre — 380 Calder Road
  • Springwell House Health Centre — Ardmillan Ter, Chiropody Clinic
  • Gogarburn Hospital — 175-179 Glasgow Road, EH12
  • Astley Ainslie Hospital — 133 Grange Loan, EH9
  • Balfour Day Hospital — Grange Loan
  • Braid Veterinary Hospital — Centres, 371 Leith Walk, 6
  • Dolls Hospital — 25 Dundas St, EH3
  • University Health Centre — 6 Bristo Square
  • Ellens Glen House Hospital — 72 Carnbee Avenue
  • Braid Veterinary Hospital — 171 Mayfield Rd, 9
  • Northern Hospital Supplies

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.
  • 0.0% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.

Built from

  • geonet.edinburgh — 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