UK visa sponsorship in numbers
Every employer allowed to sponsor a UK work visa is on one official register. Here is what is actually in it.
From the GOV.UK Register of Licensed Sponsors, updated 11 Sep 2026 at 10:48 UTC.
127,701
employers can sponsor a UK work visa. Every other employer in the country cannot, however good your application.
Where the sponsors are
London is not a tie-breaker, it is the whole race. London alone has 36,510 of them, more than the next 14 cities put together (18,594). It is left out of the chart below so the rest can be compared with each other.
36,510in London
See these numbers as a table, including London
| Town or city | Employers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| London | 36,510 | 28.6% |
| Birmingham | 3,082 | 2.4% |
| Manchester | 2,872 | 2.2% |
| Leicester | 1,413 | 1.1% |
| Glasgow | 1,362 | 1.1% |
| Bristol | 1,297 | 1.0% |
| Edinburgh | 1,173 | 0.9% |
| Leeds | 1,082 | 0.8% |
| Nottingham | 1,045 | 0.8% |
| Ilford | 924 | 0.7% |
| Reading | 913 | 0.7% |
| Coventry | 900 | 0.7% |
| Slough | 852 | 0.7% |
| Milton Keynes | 844 | 0.7% |
| Cambridge | 835 | 0.7% |
Which visa routes they can use
A licence covers named routes, and most employers hold only one. Skilled Worker alone has 122,325 of them, more than the next 7 routes put together (18,945). It is left out of the chart below so the rest can be compared with each other.
122,325in Skilled Worker
See these numbers as a table, including Skilled Worker
| Visa route | Employers |
|---|---|
| Skilled Worker | 122,325 |
| Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker | 10,368 |
| Tier 2 Ministers of Religion | 1,955 |
| Creative Worker | 1,579 |
| Charity Worker | 1,528 |
| International Sportsperson | 1,465 |
| Religious Worker | 1,430 |
| Global Business Mobility: Graduate Trainee | 620 |
One employer can hold several routes, so these add up to more than 127,701.
What they do
Industries are not in the official register. We work them out from each employer's name, which only succeeds when the name says what the business does.
See these numbers as a table
| Industry | Employers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Retail & Commerce | 16,734 | 14.8% |
| Hospitality & Food | 15,618 | 13.8% |
| Healthcare & Care | 15,387 | 13.6% |
| Finance & Professional | 11,647 | 10.3% |
| Tech & Software | 11,625 | 10.3% |
| Construction & Engineering | 6,832 | 6.1% |
| Media & Creative | 6,384 | 5.7% |
| Education & Research | 5,124 | 4.5% |
| Manufacturing & Industry | 4,802 | 4.3% |
| Property & Real Estate | 2,473 | 2.2% |
| Motor & Automotive | 2,463 | 2.2% |
| Logistics & Transport | 2,401 | 2.1% |
| Charity & Faith | 1,977 | 1.8% |
| Sport & Leisure | 1,838 | 1.6% |
| Agriculture & Food Production | 1,455 | 1.3% |
| Energy & Utilities | 1,374 | 1.2% |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 1,132 | 1.0% |
| Beauty & Wellbeing | 1,103 | 1.0% |
| Security & Facilities | 1,079 | 1.0% |
| Public Sector | 667 | 0.6% |
| Travel & Tourism | 660 | 0.6% |
Read this before quoting these figures. They cover the 112,775 employers whose industry we could work out. The other 14,926, 12% of the register, have names that do not say what the business does, so they are not counted here. This is a limit of our own guesswork, not of the register.
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