The Agency by Agency Atlas 2026 The UK agency sector
As we have found since we began mapping UK agencies more than eighteen months ago, the UK agency sector is larger, more varied and more economically significant than it is often given credit for. Nearly 25,000 active agencies employ 194,000 people, generating £33bn in turnover and almost a billion pounds in investment.
- Active UK agencies
- 24,747
- Total agency workforce
- 194,311
- Total GVA
- £18.4bn
- GVA per head
- £94,452
- Total turnover
- £32.6bn
- Turnover per head
- £129,856
- Average growth
- +3.5% per year
Of course, these are just the headline figures, and with more than 29 categories of agencies within our overall list of almost 25,000 active companies, we will be exploring the detail and what drives the variation in that figure – from specialisms to age, size and geography – in the chapters of the Atlas.
Agencies are growing but more than two thirds are classified as stable
The average growth rate for agencies we have mapped is 3.5%, but even looking at the sector as a whole we can see that the growth rate is not evenly spread. Seven in ten agencies (70.3%) sit in the stable band, neither shrinking significantly or growing rapidly. Beyond the resilient core, the main story is that one in ten active agencies (10.4%) are growing fast (over 20%), while in contrast 3.0% are shrinking fast.
The concentration of agencies in the Stable band prompts a number of questions for the sector to consider. Does stability reflect resilience or a reluctance to invest in a time of uncertainty? What does it mean for the sector’s long term prospects if the majority of agencies are holding steady?
Growth rates of UK agencies
About the data
Growth rates are provided by our partners at The Data City and are based on the annual headcount growth of any given agency we have mapped. Headcount growth is based on employee count data and turnover data, and to account for the lag in reporting, The Data City’s machine-learning platform can make an accurate best estimate. If an agency has less than three years reported data on employee number, no estimate is made and no growth data is reported. Growth rates for any given cohort or list of agencies is based on the growth rates of active agencies only.
Our ‘Growth Traffic Light’ breaks down the percentage of agencies in any given group that land in one of five growth rate categories: Shrinking fast (below -20% annual growth), Shrinking (-20% to -10% annual growth), Stable (-10% to 10% annual growth), Growing (10% to 20% annual growth) and Growing Fast (over 20% annual growth). If part of the chart is empty, this means that there were no agencies mapped in that particular interval.
£18 billion in gross value added to the UK economy
The sector’s total gross value added stands at £18 billion, with a GVA per head of £94,452. GVA, which measures the value added by the sector net of inputs, is a useful measure when considering an industry’s contribution to the wider economy. The gap between turnover per head across the sector (£129,856) and GVA per head (£94,452) perhaps points to the cost base agencies carry and raises questions about where productivity gains might come from as the sector evolves.
The contrast between investment and innovation funding flows
Total investment funding in the agency sector stands at £948 million, compared to Innovate UK funding of £44 million. The gap between private investment flows and public innovation support is striking: agencies are attracting substantial capital, but relatively little is coming through government-backed innovation channels. Whether that reflects a lack of awareness, eligibility constraints or simply the private market’s confidence in the sector is a question the data alone cannot answer, but it is one that policy makers and agency leaders could be asking.
The agency sector and the UK Industrial Strategy
The scale of the sector, with nearly 25,000 agencies, 194,000 people, £18 billion in GVA, makes a compelling case for its strategic importance, and is one of the reasons why the UK’s Industrial Strategy has identified the creative industries as one of eight high-potential growth sectors, with marketing and advertising explicitly named among the priority subsectors. But the gap between Innovate UK grant funding and overall investment into the sector suggests that more can be done to support agencies effectively, not least a clearer understanding of the barriers involved.
Elsewhere in our sector, for investors and those active in M&A, the combination of a large, fragmented sector and a split growth picture, with a fast-growing cohort alongside a smaller struggling one, raises questions about which agencies to acquire or invest in. The 10.4% of agencies growing at above 20% is a signal that indicates where clients and marketing budgets are moving.
As always, the devil is in the details, as the following chapters will show.
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