全球创业观察（GEM英国）威尔士2024年报告

Monitor (GEM UK) Walesreport 2024 Summarises the findings for Wales from the GlobalEntrepreneurship Monitor survey for 2024. First published:23 October 2025 Last updated:23 October 2025 Contents Main findings(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186368) Background(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186370) How GEM measures entrepreneurial activity(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186372) Total early-stage entrepreneurial activity(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186374) Who are the entrepreneurs in Wales?(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186376) Entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186378) Welsh language fluency and entrepreneurial activity(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186380) Concluding observations(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186382) Disclaimer(https://www.gov.wales/pdf-optimised/node/71774#186384) The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is an international research project,involving 51 economies in 2024, that provides comprehensive insights into theentrepreneurial landscape across countries. Extensive research has shown thatentrepreneurship plays a crucial role in driving economic growth, enhancingcompetitiveness, and creating jobs. GEM results are widely used by regionaland national authorities as key benchmarking indicators. In 2024, the samplesize in Wales was 1,149 adults aged 18 and over, boosted through additionalsupport from the Welsh Government as part of the UK national survey. Main findings • The rate of total early-stage entrepreneurship (TEA) in Wales in 2024 was10.8 per cent. This represents a slight decrease from 11.5 per cent in 2023,but the change is not statistically significant. The 2024 TEA rate in Wales isalso not significantly different from that in England (12.2%) or the UK overall(12.0%). • Entrepreneurs in Wales in 2024 were most strongly motivated to start abusiness either to earn a living because jobs are scarce or to build greatwealth or a very high income, with just under 70 per cent citing one of thesemotivations. Very few cited continuing a family tradition. The share of thosemotivated “to make a difference in the world” was also high (around 60%), inline with the UK average. • At 9.8 per cent, the female TEA rate in Wales in 2024 was not significantlydifferent from the male rate of 11.9 per cent. Both rates were broadly stablecompared to 2023. The female-to-male TEA ratio in Wales stood at 82 percent, the highest among the UK home nations. This narrowing of the gendergap was due to a fall in male TEA rather than an increase in female TEA. • Youth entrepreneurship remains high. In 2024, the TEA rate among18–24-year-olds in Wales was 9.9 per cent—down from 14.0 per cent in2023 and a record high 16.5 per cent in 2021 but still well above the 2.0 per cent recorded in 2002. Across the UK, youth TEA reached a record high of13.7 per cent. The 18–29 age group in Wales saw a fourfold increase in TEAsince 2002, rising from 3.4 per cent to 13.5 per cent in 2024. • Graduate status continues to influence entrepreneurship. In 2024, the TEArate for graduates in Wales was 13.9 per cent, compared to 8.3 per cent fornon-graduates. However, this difference was not statistically significant. Asimilar pattern was observed in Northern Ireland, while statistically significantdifferences were found in England and Scotland. • Attitudes towards entrepreneurship in Wales are broadly in line with UKaverages. In 2024, 42.3 per cent of non-entrepreneurs in Wales felt they hadthe skills to start a business, and 48.1 per cent knew someone who hadstarted a business—similar to UK figures. Among young people (18–24),64.2 per cent knew an entrepreneur, significantly higher than the 48.1 percent among the wider (18-64) non-entrepreneurial population. • Perceptions of start-up opportunities remain low in Wales. In 2024, only 31.9per cent of non-entrepreneurs in Wales believed there were goodopportunities to start a business locally in the next six months, significantlylower than the UK figure of 43.2 per cent. This gap, which had narrowedpost-Covid, has started to widen again. • Fear of failure continues to be a major barrier. Among those who perceivedgood opportunities, 60.8 per cent in Wales said fear of failure would preventthem from starting a business, broadly in line with the UK rate of 58.2 percent. Rates have risen since 2017, reflecting ongoing uncertainty and post-pandemic anxiety. • Entrepreneurial intention remains elevated. In 2024, 22.6 per cent of non-entrepreneurial working-age adults in Wales expected to start a businesswithin the next three years, up from 20.0 per cent in 2023. This compares toa UK rate of 26.4 per cent, which is significantly higher than in previousyears. • No significant difference was found in TEA rates in relation to Welsh language fluency. In 2024, TEA stood at 14.1 per cent among fluent Welshs