Latest Update: 15 September 2023

Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate: proportion of the adult working age population that is actively trying to start a business, or that own/manage a business which is less than 3.5 years old.  In order to improve the usefulness of this indicator for making policy decisions, the TEA rate is now, for the first time, measured as a 3-year rolling average. Find out more about this indicator.

The Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) 3-year rolling average rate in Scotland increased by 0.5 percentage points between 2019-2021 and 2020-2022 to 8.5%. The 3 year rolling average TEA rate has increased by 3.3 percentage points since 2004, the first year for which comparable data is available.

Despite a difficult business environment caused by challenging global economic circumstances , the three year rolling average of Scotland’s Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate in Scotland maintained, at 8.5%.

In 2020-2022, the 3 year rolling average Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rate for males was 10.4%, compared to 6.8% for females. While the female 3 year rolling average TEA rate in Scotland has increased from 3.4% since observations began in 2004, it has been consistently below the male 3 year rolling average TEA rate and the gap has remained of a broadly similar size through the data series.

The age group with the highest 3 year rolling average TEA rate in 2020-2022 was the 25-34 age group, with a rate of 10.9% in 2022. The lowest 3 year rolling average rate of 5.9% was seen in the 55-64 age group.

In Scotland, the most deprived group (1st Quintile) showed the highest 3 year rolling average TEA rate of any group (9.6%) in 2020-2022. The least deprived group (5th Quintile) had a 3 year rolling average TEA rate of 8.0%, which is the lowest observed group in 2020-2022. The second least deprived group (4th quartile) increased from 7.6% in 2021 to 8.7% in 2022.

The 3 year rolling average TEA rate among the white ethnic population in Scotland in 2022 was lower than that of the non-white population, at 8.2% compared to 15.2% respectively. The white ethnic 3 year rolling average TEA rate increased by 0.5pp in 2022, with the non-white ethnic 3 year rolling average TEA rate increased by 0.1pp.