UK Business Confidence Index 2026
Monthly sentiment data from UK businesses listed on Yolist — covering hiring intentions, revenue outlook, and investment plans across four major sectors.
Historical Trend
Composite confidence score over the past five quarters (0–100).
Sectoral Breakdown — Q2 2026
Confidence scores disaggregated by industry group.
Methodology
Business Owner Surveys
Quarterly surveys are sent to verified and claimed business owners on the Yolist platform. Respondents rate their 3-month outlook across three dimensions: hiring intent, revenue expectation, and planned investment.
Review & Engagement Activity
Review submission rate, profile update frequency, and photo upload volume act as real-time behavioural proxies. These leading indicators are blended at a 20% weight to produce interim monthly updates.
New Listing Growth
Month-on-month growth in new business registrations on the directory provides a supply-side signal. Higher growth implies increased entrepreneurial confidence in market conditions.
Full technical details are available on the methodology page.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the Yolist UK Business Confidence Index?
- It is a monthly composite score (0–100) measuring sentiment among UK businesses listed on the Yolist directory. It combines survey responses on hiring, revenue outlook, and investment intentions with behavioural signals such as review activity and new listing growth.
- How is the confidence score calculated?
- The score is a weighted average of three sub-indices: hiring intentions (30%), revenue outlook (40%), and investment plans (30%). Each sub-index is derived from quarterly surveys sent to verified business owners on the platform, normalised to a 0–100 scale.
- How often is the index updated?
- The headline score is refreshed monthly, with a full quarterly report published every three months. Interim updates reflect new listing growth and review activity as leading indicators.
- Which businesses are included in the survey?
- All UK businesses with a verified or claimed listing on Yolist are eligible. We aim for a minimum of 500 survey responses per quarter across the four main sectors: Trades, Professional Services, Hospitality, and Retail.
- How can I use this data in my own research?
- The Yolist Business Confidence Index is free to cite and share under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Please link back to this page as the source. For the underlying dataset, contact our research team via the data sources page.