How the Indie Index works

One number per town: the share of its high-street businesses that are independent rather than part of a chain. Here's how it's worked out.

The data

We combine several sources of business information, refreshed every week. This edition counts 16,106 businesses. Only businesses that look open and genuine are counted.

Towns follow official town boundaries: a business counts towards a town if it sits inside that town's built-up area.

What's counted

High-street businesses we can count reliably: cafés, bakeries, restaurants, pubs, bars, delis, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, takeaways, ice cream parlours, wine shops, bookshops, florists, gift shops, clothes shops, shoe shops, jewellers, hardware shops, bike shops, toy shops, galleries and art shops, antiques shops, music shops, pet shops, garden centres, hairdressers, barbers, beauty salons, opticians, estate agents, hotels, B&Bs, guest houses. Trades such as plumbers and electricians are left out, because many work from home and can't be counted reliably.

What counts as a chain

1. It belongs to one of thousands of known chain and franchise brands.
2. Its website is shared by several places, which catches regional chains too small to be well known.

Everything else counts as independent. A business doesn't need a website to be counted.

Ranking

Towns need at least 30 counted businesses to be ranked, so a village with three cafés can't top the table. Towns are ranked by share independent; ties go to the town with more independent businesses. We publish each town's own result and the top of the table, but not a “least independent” list.

The Awards

Award winners come only from the data. There are no entries, no fees and no judges, and nobody can pay to win.

• Most independent coffee town: the highest independent share among ranked towns with at least 8 of them.
• Bookshop capital: the most independent bookshops among ranked towns with at least 3 of them.
• Best town for independent butchers and bakers: the highest independent share among ranked towns with at least 5 of them.
• Most independent pub town: the highest independent share among ranked towns with at least 8 of them.
• Most independent places to stay: the highest independent share among ranked towns with at least 5 of them.

Limits

Business information is more complete in some places than others, and some chains are hard to spot. The Index is an estimate, not a census. Towns can send corrections from their results page; we check every one within a week and fix the data where it's wrong.

Using the Index

Journalists, councils and researchers are welcome to quote it with credit to Independents Only. Method version 2026.1, edition , built 2026-10-22.