Bromsgrove was the best place in the entire country when it came to new businesses surviving their first year.

And remarkably, the next two places in the national league table were neighbouring Wyre Forest and Redditch.

The first year of a new business is normally the toughest, with a very high rate of failures before 12 months is out.

But in a league table of the local council areas with the lowest ‘death rate’ for new businesses in their first year, Bromsgrove comes out with the top rate of just 37% in 2019.

That’s a remarkable 6 out of 10 start-up businesses surviving.

There was an enormous entrepreneurial surge in 2019 in Bromsgrove, with 5,060 new businesses ‘born’ and just 1,860 of them ‘dying.’

Wyre Forest had 980 business births and 365 deaths (37.24%) while Redditch had 880 and 405 (46.02%). Wychavon came in on 60.17% (1,180 and 710), meaning 6 out of ten new firms there collapsed within a year.

In fact only five areas had ’death rate’ below 50%, showing how tough it is for new enterprises.

And while the 2019 figures are fantastic for the local economy, the 5-year figures show a survival rate of just 47%.

That’s still well above many local areas across the country, but well off the top areas which can boast figures above 60%.

The tables were compiled by CircleLoop, a company providing phone systems, using official government data. You can view the research here: https://blog.circleloop.com/the-startup-index-circleloop