Research · State of the Trades

State of the Trades: the numbers behind the United Kingdom's tradespeople

Six figures on the UK trades economy, each built from independent public evidence we aggregate and cross-check. No ads, no paid placement. Journalists and researchers are welcome to cite these with attribution to MyTrustedTraders (data as of 2026-07-04T19:43:35.598Z).

1,465,083traders profiles in the directory

Traders profiles for the United Kingdom in the public-evidence directory, including entries that are not yet ready to browse.

112,974trader profiles ready to browse

Profiles across the United Kingdom that currently have enough public evidence and a way for a homeowner to act, so they can appear in browse and search.

18,423,586source-reported public reviews

The sum of source-backed public review totals on directory profiles. It is not a count of unique customers.

22named public sources

Distinct review, credential/registry and business-register sources we hold evidence from. Every figure traces to one.

71trade categories

Distinct trades covered across the United Kingdom, from emergency plumbers to architects.

392advertising firms with an adverse register status

Businesses with a dissolved, liquidated or struck-off company-register status that were still publicly advertising trade services across the 41 towns we publish, as of 2026-07-04T19:43:35.598Z.

Method

Every figure is a real aggregate over the public evidence we hold: reviews, credential and registry checks, and company-register status across named sources. It is not opinion or a model. The directory-profile figure includes entries that are not yet ready to browse. The source-reported review figure adds each profile's public headline count, so it is not a unique-customer count. The adverse-status figure counts company-register status only (a status can lag reality and any firm can correct its information), aggregated across the towns included in this report. Numbers move as we add public evidence and as registers change; the as-of date reflects the latest data behind the adverse figure.

See the town-by-town research