If you own a company in Kent, you're one of a lot of people doing the same. The county and Medway have 107,163 trading private companies. Most are young, most have a single owner and a single director, and nine in 10 are controlled by individuals rather than by another company.
Companies House records who controls each company, with their month and year of birth, nationality and country of residence, and the same details for every director. By owners we mean the people it lists as controlling a company: usually anyone with more than a quarter of the shares or votes. Smaller shareholders aren't listed. We read the owners of every Kent company from the register's snapshot of 19 October 2026, and the directors of 15,000 companies chosen at random. This is what they show.
Who owns them
Of the 107,163 trading companies, 96,783 (90%) are controlled by individuals and 8,454 (8%) by another company, usually a parent or holding company. 71% of those controlled by individuals have just one owner on the register.
In about 21,000 Kent companies the oldest owner is 60 or over
- 16 to 295,287
- 30 to 3918,049
- 40 to 4927,720
- 50 to 5924,251
- 60 to 6915,443
- 70 to 794,685
- 80 and over1,336
In 16,595 companies, one in six of those controlled by individuals, every owner is 60 or over, so none of the people who control them is under 60. In 8,330 every owner is 65 or over, and in 4,035 every owner is 70 or over.
Where the older owners are
Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks and Dover have the highest share of companies where every owner is 60 or over
- 20% or more
- 18% to 19%
- 15% to 17%
- Under 15%
- Tunbridge Wells22%
- Sevenoaks22%
- Dover21%
- Folkestone and Hythe21%
- Tonbridge and Malling20%
- Canterbury19%
- Ashford19%
- Swale17%
- Maidstone16%
- Thanet16%
- Medway14%
- Dartford12%
- Gravesham12%
It's highest in Tunbridge Wells (22%), Sevenoaks (22%) and Dover (21%), and lowest along the Thames: 12% in Gravesham and Dartford, and 14% in Medway.
| District | Trading companies | Every owner 60 or over | An owner 60 or over | One director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ashford | 8,326 | 19% | 25% | 60% |
| Canterbury | 7,822 | 19% | 24% | 60% |
| Dartford | 9,564 | 12% | 15% | 70% |
| Dover | 3,985 | 21% | 28% | 66% |
| Folkestone and Hythe | 4,623 | 21% | 26% | 65% |
| Gravesham | 6,749 | 12% | 15% | 73% |
| Maidstone | 10,490 | 16% | 21% | 63% |
| Medway | 15,151 | 14% | 17% | 69% |
| Sevenoaks | 9,841 | 22% | 27% | 61% |
| Swale | 6,443 | 17% | 22% | 63% |
| Thanet | 6,564 | 16% | 21% | 63% |
| Tonbridge and Malling | 9,709 | 20% | 26% | 59% |
| Tunbridge Wells | 7,896 | 22% | 28% | 62% |
The owners' figures cover every company and are shares of those controlled by individuals; the first column counts all trading companies. The single-director figures come from our sample, about 463 to 1,815 trading companies in each district, so they're accurate to within two to four points either way.
Which trades
Farming, forestry and fishing has the oldest owners by some way, with every owner 60 or over in 30% of its companies. Professional and technical services and manufacturing come next, at about 23% and 22%. The lowest, about 13%, are in transport and storage, arts, sport and leisure, and information and communication.
| Trade | Trading companies | Every owner 60 or over | One owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farming, forestry and fishing | 1,015 | 30% | 61% |
| Professional and technical services | 14,059 | 23% | 73% |
| Manufacturing | 4,460 | 22% | 70% |
| Finance and insurance | 4,310 | 20% | 62% |
| Admin and support services | 8,781 | 20% | 72% |
| Property | 12,947 | 19% | 57% |
| Construction | 16,778 | 15% | 71% |
| Other services | 4,357 | 15% | 76% |
| Health and care | 5,326 | 15% | 75% |
| Education | 1,902 | 15% | 75% |
| Shops, wholesale and motor trade | 11,960 | 14% | 76% |
| Water and waste | 505 | 14% | 72% |
| Hotels, pubs and restaurants | 5,226 | 14% | 75% |
| Information and communication | 8,816 | 13% | 75% |
| Arts, sport and leisure | 2,379 | 13% | 70% |
| Transport and storage | 3,624 | 13% | 85% |
Who runs them
The typical director of a Kent company is 50, and 24% of directorships are held by someone aged 60 or over. 64% of trading companies have one director, so in most Kent companies one person is the whole board. In 15% every director is 60 or over; in 23% every director is under 40.
Most Kent companies are young: the typical one is six years old, and 33% have been going for 10 years or more. The typical director has been in post for five years. In 29% of companies a director has been in post for 10 years or more, and in 9% for 20 years or more.
In companies that last, founders tend to stay. Among companies that have been going for 10 to 20 years, 84% still have a director who was appointed when the company was set up. Among those that have been going for 20 to 34 years, it's 66%.
Nationality and living abroad
87% of directorships in Kent companies are held by British nationals. The most common other nationalities in our sample were Nigerian, Romanian, Irish, Indian and Polish. Among owners, 17% of companies controlled by individuals have at least one owner who isn't British.
Few live elsewhere. 2% of those companies, about 2,200, have an owner who lives outside the UK, most often in France, the United States or Spain. Our piece on British company owners moving abroad looks at who's leaving across the UK.
What it means if you're one of them
If you're 60 or over and the only owner, you're far from alone, and nobody has to decide anything this year. But in our experience, the owners who step back on their own terms tend to be the ones who started thinking about it a few years early: who could run the business without them, whether family wants it, and whether they'd rather sell it all, sell part of it, or hand it over in stages. Our guide to an exit strategy for a small business sets out the options, and how to sell a business covers the process.
How we worked out the figures
The companies are every active private limited company with a registered office in one of Kent's 12 districts or Medway in Companies House's company data of 1 October 2026, matched by postcode. "Trading" leaves out companies that file dormant accounts and those registered as non-trading or as residents' management companies.
Owners are the people with significant control in Companies House's snapshot of 19 October 2026, for every company, not a sample. A company is controlled by individuals if all its current people with significant control are people rather than companies or other legal entities. Directors come from the officers of 15,000 companies chosen at random (12,970 of them trading), so those figures are estimates, accurate to within about one point either way for Kent as a whole, and to within about three for the founder figures. A founding director is one appointed within a month of the company being set up and still in post; companies set up before 1992 are left out of that figure, because the register has no appointment dates before then. Ages are worked out from the month and year of birth on the register. We publish totals only, and never anyone's age or details.