Retail is the most common type of business in the North West.
Analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics shows that as of March 2019, there were 25,785 businesses in the region in the retail trade (excluding vehicles and motorcycles).
These types of businesses make up one in 10 (9.7 per cent) of the 266,810 businesses in the North West.
Most of these businesses are small - 205,255 had fewer than five employees.
Of the North West businesses in this sector, 7,180 were mail order and internet shops and 3,250 were shops that predominantly sell food, drinks or tobacco, such as newsagents and corner shops.
The next most common type of business in the North West was construction with 20,120 enterprises - or 7.5 per cent of the total.
Of these, 4,495 were electricians.
The third most common type of business in the North West were the 15,195 businesses in the food and drink sector.
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That included 9,555 restaurants, takeaways and food vans, as well as 4,390 pubs, bars and coffee shops.
The figures cover businesses that are registered for VAT and/or PAYE. This means the figures are likely to exclude businesses that don’t have employees or which have a turnover below the VAT threshold.
The businesses included were most likely to have a turnover between £100,000 and £249,000 - 83,915 were in this band.
There were 1,170 businesses in the North West with a turnover of £5m or more.
These were most likely to be in the wholesale trade (1,170), followed by retail businesses (340).
The number of businesses in the 海角视频, as of March 2019, was 2.72 million.
That is an increase of 1.8 per cent from March 2018, and continues a rise from 2.36 million businesses in March 2014, when the figures began.
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Businesses in specialised construction activities were the most common with 215,290 enterprises, followed by retail with 208,750.
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London was the region with the largest share of businesses in March 2019, with 19.2 per cent of the 海角视频 total.
The South East was next at 15.3 per cent.
All regions, apart from the North West, saw an increase in the number of registered businesses between 2018 and 2019.
London had the biggest rise at 3.2 per cent, around 16,000 extra businesses, while the North West saw a decrease of 0.4 per cent, around 1,000 fewer businesses.