# Where businesses form and disappear

> Formation, dissolution and the live register answer three different questions about London business.

- Category: Money and business
- Canonical: [https://londongraph.com/story/where-businesses-form-and-disappear](https://londongraph.com/story/where-businesses-form-and-disappear)
- Machine-readable record: [https://londongraph.com/data/story/where-businesses-form-and-disappear](https://londongraph.com/data/story/where-businesses-form-and-disappear)
- Latest contributing release: 2026-08-02T22:34:40.179Z

A company can move its registered office, remain live after trading stops, or dissolve long after activity ends. The story keeps historical flows separate from the current registered-office stock.

## Evidence

### Formations

Historical London registered-office formations by year.

- Current computed headline: 2026 — 128,273 companies incorporated (2026)
- Comparison: unavailable
- Release: not labelled
- Dataset: `company-formations`
- Explore: [companies-born-in-london](https://londongraph.com/g/companies-born-in-london)

### Formations and dissolutions

The two administrative flows in the latest available year.

- Current computed headline: incorporated — 128,273 companies (2026)
- dissolved: 102,721 companies
- Release: not labelled
- Dataset: `company-churn`
- Explore: [companies-born-and-died](https://londongraph.com/g/companies-born-and-died)

### Live-company age profile

Incorporation cohorts among companies still present in the latest bulk snapshot.

- Current computed headline: 1–4 years — 530,060 live companies (1–4 years)
- 5–9 years: 356,278 live companies
- Release: Live-company snapshot 2026-08-01
- Dataset: `company-incorporation-cohorts`
- Explore: [how-old-are-londons-companies](https://londongraph.com/g/how-old-are-londons-companies)

### Registered-office geography

SIC diversity and shared-address concentration across postcode districts.

- Current computed headline: DA1 — 14.59 effective sections (2026-08-01)
- London median: 12.65 effective sections
- Release: Live-company snapshot 2026-08-01
- Dataset: `business-diversity-by-postcode`
- Explore: [business-diversity-by-postcode](https://londongraph.com/g/business-diversity-by-postcode)

## Interpretation

Registered offices are administrative locations, not workplaces, jobs or economic output. Live-company cohorts are survival-weighted.

Every numerical claim is computed from the current versioned datasets at render time. Missing data is reported as missing rather than replaced.

## Sources

- [Companies House](https://developer.company-information.service.gov.uk/)
- [Companies House](https://download.companieshouse.gov.uk/en_output.html)