Northumberland has been hailed as one of the UK's business hotspots with more than 1,000 new businesses formed in 2023.

The county registered 1,554 new formations last year, compared to 1,527 in 2022, pushing the total number of companies to an all-time high 12,830.

These figures come courtesy of the Inform Direct Review of Company Formations, which gathers data from Companies House and the Office for National Statistics.

John Korchak, managing director at Inform Direct said: "It is excellent news that Northumberland can celebrate a successful year for new company formations during 2023.

"The year undoubtedly presented a range of challenges for business including tepid predictions of economic growth, volatility in energy prices and uncertainty from world events.

"However, the formation figures demonstrate very clearly that Northumberland entrepreneurs remained undeterred and pursued their ambitions to establish new ventures."

Northumberland's vibrant business scene mirrors the UK's overall business landscape.

The country observed an increase of 11.8 per cent in new companies in 2023, with a total of 900,006 new formations, compared to 805,141 in 2022.

This boosts the total number of UK companies to 5,476,772.

Meanwhile, dissolutions of UK companies totalled 662,915, an increase on 2022's 578,679 dissolved businesses.