Open dataset · Updated 26 April 2026
UK Sponsor Licence Atlas
Every employer on the Home Office register of licensed visa sponsors, aggregated. 140,769 licences across 125,485 organisations, with 99.9% A-rated.
125,485
Licensed sponsors
99.9%
A-rated licences
42,887
In London alone
17
Visa routes covered
Where are sponsor jobs concentrated?
London hosts 42,887 licensed sponsors — roughly 30% of every UK sponsor licence sits inside the M25. The full top-30:
| Rank | City | Sponsors | % of total | Browse jobs → |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | 42,887 | 30.5% | jobs in London |
| 2 | Birmingham | 3,298 | 2.3% | jobs in Birmingham |
| 3 | Manchester | 3,087 | 2.2% | jobs in Manchester |
| 4 | Leicester | 1,484 | 1.1% | jobs in Leicester |
| 5 | Glasgow | 1,462 | 1.0% | jobs in Glasgow |
| 6 | Bristol | 1,443 | 1.0% | jobs in Bristol |
| 7 | Edinburgh | 1,271 | 0.9% | jobs in Edinburgh |
| 8 | Leeds | 1,166 | 0.8% | jobs in Leeds |
| 9 | Reading | 1,119 | 0.8% | jobs in Reading |
| 10 | Nottingham | 1,118 | 0.8% | jobs in Nottingham |
| 11 | Milton Keynes | 979 | 0.7% | jobs in Milton Keynes |
| 12 | Cambridge | 974 | 0.7% | jobs in Cambridge |
| 13 | Coventry | 965 | 0.7% | jobs in Coventry |
| 14 | Ilford | 950 | 0.7% | jobs in Ilford |
| 15 | Slough | 909 | 0.6% | jobs in Slough |
| 16 | Harrow | 844 | 0.6% | jobs in Harrow |
| 17 | Liverpool | 783 | 0.6% | jobs in Liverpool |
| 18 | Bradford | 773 | 0.5% | jobs in Bradford |
| 19 | Luton | 764 | 0.5% | jobs in Luton |
| 20 | Sheffield | 735 | 0.5% | jobs in Sheffield |
| 21 | Oxford | 712 | 0.5% | jobs in Oxford |
| 22 | Cardiff | 654 | 0.5% | jobs in Cardiff |
| 23 | Southampton | 610 | 0.4% | jobs in Southampton |
| 24 | Bolton | 603 | 0.4% | jobs in Bolton |
| 25 | Aberdeen | 601 | 0.4% | jobs in Aberdeen |
| 26 | Belfast | 579 | 0.4% | jobs in Belfast |
| 27 | Croydon | 579 | 0.4% | jobs in Croydon |
| 28 | Derby | 579 | 0.4% | jobs in Derby |
| 29 | Northampton | 562 | 0.4% | jobs in Northampton |
| 30 | Newcastle Upon Tyne | 555 | 0.4% | jobs in Newcastle Upon Tyne |
Licences by visa route
The Skilled Worker route accounts for 86% of every UK sponsor licence on file. Below: every route, ranked.
Sponsor ratings on file
The Home Office assigns each licensed sponsor a rating. A-rated sponsors are in good standing and can issue Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS); B-rated sponsors are on a remedial action plan. Lost-licence companies don't appear on the register at all.
| Type & Rating | Licences |
|---|---|
| Worker (A rating) | 135,058 |
| Temporary Worker (A rating) | 5,524 |
| Worker (UK Expansion Worker: Provisional) | 161 |
| Worker (B rating) | 18 |
| Worker (A (Premium)) | 4 |
| Temporary Worker (A (Premium)) | 1 |
| Temporary Worker (A (SME+)) | 1 |
| Worker (A (SME+)) | 1 |
| Temporary Worker (B rating) | 1 |
Methodology
- Source: UK Home Office Register of Licensed Sponsors (Workers) — the public CSV updated multiple times per week.
- City and county fields are normalised (case-folded, deduplicated) before aggregation. London + LONDON + london all roll up together.
- Counts are licence-level, not employee-level. One licence can cover thousands of sponsored employees.
- This atlas is regenerated on each deploy of sponsorshipjobs.io; the data snapshot here was taken on 26 April 2026.
Cite this atlas
Journalists, researchers, and AI search engines are welcome to cite or link this dataset. Suggested citation:
SponsorshipJobs (2026). UK Sponsor Licence Atlas. https://sponsorshipjobs.io/uk-sponsor-licence-atlas. Accessed 26 April 2026.
Related tools
UK Sponsor Licence Checker
Look up any company by name and see if it can sponsor a visa.
Skilled Worker Salary Checker
Check the £38,700 minimum threshold against your SOC code.
Visa Salary Threshold Tracker
Historical timeline of UK Skilled Worker minimum salaries.
Browse sponsorship jobs
Live UK roles tagged confirmed-sponsor or likely-sponsor.