Bournemouth is the UK's fastest growing digital economy

Photo courtesy of Bournemouth City Council

Tech City, a government backed organisation, recently released a report which revealed that Bournemouth is the fastest growth city in the digital economy in the UK.

With the number of digital companies starting up in Bournemouth between 2010 and 2013 increasing by 212%, the report has dispelled the image that the UK’s digital economy is solely based in London.

In cities all over the UK, the digital economy has rapidly expanded over the last ten years. More start-up companies than ever before are coming to the UK, with over 500,000 new companies created in the last year alone. But Bournemouth’s growth dwarfed all other competition with second place Liverpool showing 119% growth. London still remains the most significant employer within the digital sector but despite this, the capital was ranked fourth place in the survey.

Andy Parker, chair of CIM Dorset committee commented; “It’s fantastic that Bournemouth has been shown to be number one in the biggest survey of the UK’s digital sector ever completed. The region is booming with digital businesses and you really get a sense of that working in the area.”

Bournemouth and Poole is a region rich with agencies and big name brands, such as Lush, Sunseeker, LV=, Animal, Farrow & Ball, Nationwide, JP Morgan, RNLI and Merlin Entertainments, and is well served by two leading creative universities. It’s also host to Silicon Beach which brings together the UK’s digital innovators across two days and hosts a range of fantastic speaker from a wide variety of disciplines. So maybe it’s not so surprising that Bournemouth is number one after all.

Councillor Mike Greene, cabinet member for corporate policy and implementation, said; “Bournemouth is a great place to do business. Supported by two business-focused Universities nurturing future world class talent, the creative and digital sector in Bournemouth is going from strength to strength. The Council is determined to do all it can to encourage this and to show why Bournemouth is the destination of choice to work and to live for everyone involved in this exciting sector.”