ULLAPOOL is Scotland’s most entrepreneurial place, with 17.9 per cent of its working-age population self-employed, research by the Federation of Small Businesses reveals.
In contrast, Gowkthrapple, near Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, is the least entrepreneurial, according to the FSB’s analysis of the number of working-age people with their own business in 479 Scottish towns, villages, cities and suburbs.
Only 2.7 per cent of Gowkthrapple’s residents are self-employed, meaning people in Ullapool are nearly seven times more likely to have their own business.
The FSB highlights its survey findings that smaller, wealthier, rural locations in the north half of Scotland are more likely to have high levels of self-employment.
Conversely, people living in poorer settlements elsewhere in Scotland, especially those that used to have a large industrial employer, have much lower proportions of people working for themselves.
Andy Willox, the FSB’s Scottish policy convenor, said: “We find high levels of unemployment and low self-employment in towns that bear the scars of Scotland’s industrial decline, suggesting that poverty is a barrier to self-employment and the social mobility that comes with it.
“Research shows that you’re less likely to set up on your own if you have few skills, have little in the way of cash reserves, if you don’t have a car or own your home.”
The FSB also found that places which currently have one large employer, such as St Andrews in Fife in which the university is a major driver of the labour market, also have a relatively low proportion of people who work for themselves.
Mr Willox observed popular tourist destinations are “awash with smaller firms”, and noted there are still “thriving business communities” in market towns.
Another Highland settlement takes second place in the league table of top entrepreneurial towns, with 17.2 per cent of people of working age in Newtonmore self-employed. Tarbert, in Argyll, is in third place with a self-employment rate of 15.4 per cent, and Pittenweem in Fife is fourth, at 14.7 per cent.
Garelochhead, in Argyll, is second-least entrepreneurial, with only 2.8 per cent of people working for themselves. High Valleyfield in Fife is third-least entrepreneurial, with a self-employment rate of 2.9 per cent.
It is followed by Faifley in West Dunbartonshire, with a self-employment rate of three per cent, Leuchars in Fife, on 3.2 per cent, and Linwood in Renfrewshire, at 3.4 per cent.
The FSB noted there are now more than 200,000 self-employed people in Scotland. It pointed out this is greater than the number of people who work for the NHS or Scottish local authorities.
Mr Willox said: “Big business and public sector downsizings, alongside new business models powered by digital technology, have resulted in a steady increase in the number of Scots self-employed. This trend is not exclusive to Scotland, but it’s something to which we need to adapt.”
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