UK Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis 2021

• The UK cyber sector is worth £8.9 billion and attracted £800 million in investment
• 21% increase in the number of active cyber security firms compared to last year
•  Almost 50,000 people are employed in UK cyber security

The report has been published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and was written by Perspective Economics, the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), and Ipsos. It contains the results of desk research and gap analysis, combined with the Cyber Security Sectoral Survey results and findings from qualitative interviews.

The main findings show that:

• UK cyber security firms raised over £821 million across 73 deals in 2020, more than double the amount raised in 2019
• The sector is worth £8.9 billion, up 7 per cent on last year
• The sector contributed more than £4 billion to the economy, up 6 per cent in the last year, mainly driven by mature firms
• The cyber security workforce is estimated at 46,683, up nine per cent on last year, with 65% being employed by large firms (250+ employees)
• More than half of firms (54%) are now based outside of London and the South East, with active cyber security clusters in areas such as Scotland, Northern Ireland and North West England

While cyber security firms generally felt well-placed to adapt to remote working, nine in ten firms (89%) felt COVID-19 had an impact on their business. Support and opportunities to continue growing, especially for small and medium-sized firms looking to scale up, is considered a top priority.

You can read the report here

Technical details

· Ipsos carried out 262 telephone interviews with UK cyber security firms between 12 May and 20 July 2020. The data are unweighted.

· Ipsos and its partners also undertook 20 qualitative interviews with cyber security firms, buyers of cyber security products and services, and investors in the cyber security sector.