England’s rural economy combines high employment, a dense population of small businesses and a large contribution from tourism and land-based industries. The latest figures show both its scale and its differences from urban economies. These statistics describe England’s rural and urban areas rather than the Blackdown Hills specifically.
Contents
- Employment and labour-market rates
- Earnings and unemployment-related claims
- Economic output and productivity
- Business numbers and size
- Industries, agriculture and tourism
- Start-ups, survival and growth
- Innovation and capital investment
Employment and labour-market rates
The rural labour market recorded a higher employment rate than the urban labour market in the latest quarterly figures. In Q3 2025, 79.0% of England’s rural working-age population aged 16–64 was in employment, compared with 74.8% in urban areas. That was a 4.2 percentage-point rural advantage. These are residence-based Labour Force Survey measures, so they describe where people live rather than where their jobs are located (Digest of Rural England: 7 – Rural Economic Bulletin).
Unemployment was also lower in rural England. In Q3 2025, 3.6% of economically active people aged 16 and over in rural England were unemployed, compared with 5.6% in urban England. The annual-average unemployment rate was 3.2% in rural England in 2025, based on Q1–Q3 data, versus 5.2% in urban England. The 2025 annual estimate is provisional because it does not cover the full year.
Economic inactivity gives a more mixed picture. In 2024, 19.4% of the working-age population in rural settlements was economically inactive. The rate was 18.5% in settlements nearer to a major town or city and 21.1% in settlements further away. Under the broad 2011 rural-urban classification, the rural economic-inactivity rate was 38.2% in the 2019 annual average, compared with 34.7% in urban areas. The gap between rural and urban annual-average unemployment rates reached 2.1 percentage points at the end of 2024.
Earnings and unemployment-related claims
Workplace earnings in rural authorities were below the England-wide median in 2025. Median gross annual workplace-based earnings were £36,600 in majority-rural English authorities, compared with £37,700 in urban authorities outside London. The England median was £39,300, while London’s median was £49,500. On this measure, median workplace earnings in majority-rural authorities were £2,700 below the England median.
Where people live also matters. In 2025, median residence-based earnings in majority-rural authorities nearer a major town or city were £39,700, which was £2,600 above the figure for those further away. This distinction helps separate earnings associated with rural residents from earnings associated with jobs located in rural authorities.
Longer-term changes show substantial nominal growth in both rural and urban areas. Between 2006 and 2020, median workplace-based earnings rose 37% in majority-rural authorities and 34% in urban authorities outside London. Between 2021 and 2025, they increased 28% in majority-rural authorities and 24% in urban authorities outside London.
The claimant measure points to lower unemployment-related claims in rural constituencies. In Q4 2025, 2.2% of the working-age population in majority-rural constituencies claimed Universal Credit or Jobseeker’s Allowance because of unemployment, compared with 4.3% in urban constituencies outside London. Between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025, the number of such claimants increased by 1,300 in majority-rural constituencies, while it fell by 9,700 in urban constituencies outside London. These constituency figures are separate from the residence-based Labour Force Survey rates above.
Economic output and productivity
Rural areas contributed £259 billion of England’s Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2023, accounting for 12.2% of England’s total GVA. The local-authority breakdown uses different rural categories, so the figures should not be treated as a single simple rural total. Majority-rural local authorities generated £166.7 billion, equal to 7.9% of England’s total, while intermediate-rural local authorities generated £200.2 billion, equal to 9.5%.
Together, majority-rural and intermediate-rural local authorities generated £366.9 billion of GVA, or 17.4% of England’s total. Within majority-rural authorities, those nearer to a major town or city contributed £112.1 billion, or 5.3% of England’s total. Those further from a major town or city contributed £54.6 billion, or 2.6%.
| Area or classification | GVA per workforce job, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Majority-rural authorities | £56,400 |
| Intermediate-rural authorities | £59,500 |
| England excluding London | £61,500 |
| Urban English local authorities excluding London | £62,700 |
Average GVA per workforce job was £56,400 in majority-rural authorities in 2023, compared with £59,500 in intermediate-rural authorities. The figure was £61,500 for England excluding London and £62,700 in urban English local authorities excluding London. GVA per workforce job is a productivity measure; it is not the same as an individual’s pay.
Business numbers and size
Rural areas had 526,200 registered businesses in 2023/24, representing 22% of all registered businesses in England. The density was 550 registered businesses per 10,000 population, compared with 390 per 10,000 in urban areas. Smaller rural areas had 730 registered businesses per 10,000 population, while larger rural areas had 360.
Those businesses employed 3.5 million people in 2023/24, equal to 12% of employment by registered businesses in England. Rural employment was more concentrated in very small firms: 27% of employees in rural areas worked for micro-businesses with 1–9 employees, compared with 18% in urban areas. In addition, 16% of rural businesses had no employees, against 7% of urban businesses.
Small and medium-sized enterprises dominated the registered rural business base. There were 525,000 registered rural SMEs in 2023/24, representing 99.8% of registered rural enterprises. They employed 2.5 million people, or 72% of employment by registered rural enterprises, compared with 41% for urban SMEs. Average turnover per person employed was £148,000 in rural registered SMEs, versus £248,000 in urban registered SMEs.
The distribution of employment by firm size was also different. In 2023/24, 27% of rural employment was in businesses with 10–49 employees. In urban areas, 31% of employment was in businesses with 250 or more employees. Business-by-size figures use registered enterprises, while business-by-industry figures below use local units, so the measures have different statistical bases.
Industries, agriculture and tourism
Agriculture, forestry and fishing accounted for 14% of rural businesses in 2023/24. Construction and professional, scientific and technical services each also accounted for 14%, while wholesale and retail trade, including motor-vehicle repair, accounted for 13%.
There were 81,700 agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses in rural areas, including 75,000 in smaller rural settlements. In those smaller settlements, the sector made up 20% of all businesses. Agriculture, forestry and fishing businesses employed 309,000 people in rural areas, compared with 55,300 in urban areas.
Education, health and social work accounted for 16% of rural employment in 2023/24, compared with 23% in urban areas. Tourism-related businesses numbered 67,800 in rural areas, representing 12% of rural businesses. In urban areas, there were 286,500 tourism-related businesses, representing 13%.
Tourism’s employment share was higher in rural areas. Tourism-related businesses accounted for 578,000 rural jobs, or 15% of rural employment, compared with 2.624 million jobs and 11% of urban employment. They represented 11% of businesses in smaller rural settlements and 13% in larger rural settlements.
Tourism-related businesses are a grouped analytical category rather than a single Standard Industrial Classification sector. The agriculture, forestry and fishing figures and the tourism figures therefore describe different industry groupings and should not be added together as if they were mutually exclusive categories.
Start-ups, survival and growth
Predominantly Rural areas recorded 39 registered business start-ups per 10,000 population in 2023, compared with 43 in Predominantly Urban areas outside London. They also recorded 39 business deaths per 10,000 population, against 44 in Predominantly Urban areas outside London. The active-business stock was higher in rural areas: 421 active registered businesses per 10,000 population, compared with 374.
Survival was another rural strength. Of businesses started in 2018, 45% survived five years in Predominantly Rural areas, measured in 2023, compared with 37% in Predominantly Urban areas outside London. In 2023, nearly one quarter of Predominantly Rural authorities had at least a 50% five-year survival rate for businesses started in 2018.
High-growth businesses were present at a similar rate across the two classifications. They represented 4.3% of eligible businesses in Predominantly Rural areas in 2023, compared with 4.6% in Predominantly Urban areas outside London. Here, a high-growth business means an enterprise with average annualised employment growth of 20% over three years and at least 10 employees.
The rural range was wide. Waverley had the highest high-growth-business proportion among Predominantly Rural authorities in 2023, at 7.8% of businesses with at least 10 employees. The Isles of Scilly had the lowest, at less than 0.1% of businesses with at least 10 employees. These are authority-level results, not a general rate for every rural community.
Innovation and capital investment
The available innovation comparison comes from a 2012–2014 survey rather than the latest business counts. Broader innovation activities were undertaken by 58% of rural businesses surveyed and 57% of urban businesses surveyed. Because the survey covers an earlier period, it should not be read as a current 2023/24 innovation estimate.
Capital investment per employee was about £4,700 in Predominantly Rural areas in 2018, compared with about £4,900 in Predominantly Urban areas outside London. London’s figure was about £5,800. Predominantly Rural investment per head was below the England average in all but one year from 2007 to 2018; the figures were the same in 2017.
The source for the employment, earnings, output, business, industry, survival, innovation and investment figures is the Digest of Rural England: 7 – Rural Economic Bulletin. Its measures use several rural–urban classifications and statistical units, including settlements, local authorities and constituencies. The results are therefore useful for understanding England’s rural economy, but they are not estimates for the Blackdown Hills specifically.