East Devon has been named among the UK areas that are experiencing a boom in ‘microbusinesses’.

A microbusiness is typically defined as having 10 employees or fewer, with a relatively small turnover and an active website.

Analysis has found a 23 per cent growth in the density of microbusinesses in East Devon over the past year.

The findings are from Venture Forward, an international research initiative from GoDaddy, which is a company providing tech services for businesses such as domain names, website building and online marketing.

GoDaddy worked out a 'microbusiness density' score for every UK constituency, mapped against each 100 residents.

The trend that emerged was that constituencies along the coastline in the south of the UK were growing at an especially fast rate, whilst northern coastal constituencies were stagnating or declining.

For example, Suffolk Coastal is the sixth fastest growing area of the country overall, and saw 54 per cent growth in its microbusiness density score.

By contrast Blackpool South saw density growth of just 2.7 per cent and Scarborough and Whitby 2.1 per cent.

Andrew Gradon, Head of GoDaddy UK & Ireland, said: “The UK's small business community is in good health and we've seen growth in microbusiness density in most parts of the country. Many iconic coastal towns have been at the heart of this boom.

"The trend is particularly pronounced in the south of England, as people have moved out of London post-Covid. However, seaside towns in northern areas have not fared as well. With the rapid advancements in technology and tools to help entrepreneurs set up websites quickly and efficiently, we hope to see the north-south seaside divide start to close in the near future."