Not so grim up North

To celebrate Yorkshire Day, here are our top 10 reasons why our county is chuffin’ brilliant.

1. The Yorkshire economy is worth £110bn per year – which is larger than 11 EU countries.
2. Yorkshire is the biggest county in the UK, spanning over 2.9 million acres, with a total population of over 5.3 million people, that’s larger than the population of Norway, New Zealand, Uruguay and the Republic of Ireland. Over 80% of Yorkshire is considered ‘urban’.
3. Yorkshire has been named as the UK’s hotspot for up-and-coming innovative young companies. Creative England’s annual CE50 list of the 50 most talented and able young enterprises contains a total of 10 businesses from Yorkshire, more than any other region.
4. Leeds has more than 3,000 creative businesses, employing a total of 17,365 people. From Bradford to Sheffield, Hull to Leeds, Huddersfield to Barnsley and everywhere in between, the creative industries in this area contributed £2.57bn in GVA to the UK economy in 2016.
5. Leeds is also becoming a hub for start-ups. The digital industry now accounts for £688 million of the area’s overall GVA and the city has also become a hub for tech start-ups, with 314 new start-up births between 2011 and 2015 alone.
6. Leeds is a great place to start a business with both Leeds Beckett and The University of Leeds offering their own start-up programmes to help students with innovative ideas. Leeds Beckett has an Enterprise & Innovation Academy, which offers workshops, networking events and one-to-one support, alongside funding opportunities to help students get their idea off the ground.
7. 26 businesses from Yorkshire and the Humber are among the 2018 recipients of the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, including our clients Nouveau Lashes and Harrisons Spinks, the only company to win in both the international trade and innovation categories.
8. We are rich in culture and diversity, with Yorkshire Museums being celebrated by the Art Fund Museum of the Year awards twice in the last five years, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park won in 2014 and The Hepworth in 2017. The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull also made the final in 2018.
9. Yorkshire’s film and TV sectors are also growing faster than anywhere else in the country – Screen Yorkshire’s £15m Yorkshire Content Fund has invested in productions ranging from Dad’s Army through to Peaky Blinders and National Treasure. Between 2016 and 2017, Yorkshire and Humber’s film and television industries generated an annual turnover that increased by more than twice the national average.
10. Tourism is now worth £8bn per year to the Yorkshire economy, according to the latest statistics. The figures, from independent research carried out by Sheffield Hallam University show that this represents a 14 per cent increase since the last report in 2011.