Record 500,000 startups mushroomed in UK in 2013

In 2013, over 500,000 new businesses started in the United Kingdom, reflecting increased optimism from business entrepreneurs.

Data revealed by the national enterprise campaign StartUp Britain suggests that 502,068 businesses have already mushroomed this year and the total figure may increase to 523,410 by the end of 2013.

Startup Britain is a private sector-led initiative launched by Prime Minister David Cameron. The organization has over 60 partners and aims to help potential entrepreneurs in the UK.

"We've done it! Half a million new businesses have already been registered this year! We've been looking at these figures carefully for three years since the campaign began and it's clear the UK's start-up community is fit and healthy - and shows no sign of abating," said Emma Jones, co-founder of StartUp Britain."It's astonishing to think that in the last week alone 8,675 people decided to start up here in Britain. We're seeing record numbers of people setting up a business."

The UK government has also recently launched the "Small Business: GREAT Ambition" campaign to assist small firms to start up and grow. The campaign combines a new broadband voucher scheme to support small firms' embrace of digital innovation.

According to data collected by the UK Government agencies, micro and small firms represent around 95 percent of all businesses and employ more than 7 million people across the country.

This is the first time that the number of start-ups in the UK has crossed the 500,000 mark. In 2012, the number of start-ups in the UK accounted for 484,224 new businesses and in 2011, the total number of new businesses in the UK was 440,600.

The number of start-ups in the UK was calculated by StartUp Britain's Daily tracker, which monitors the number of firms registered with the Companies House on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. The number of start-ups are verified by the Companies House and this year's figures will be audited in March 2014.