New figures have revealed that Cumbria has more than 20,000 companies located in the county for the first time.

At the end of June 2017, 20,040 businesses were registered, according to company secretarial software specialists Inform Direct, which made the comment based on statistics from Companies House and the Office of National Statistics.

Of the county's six districts, South Lakeland is the top perfomer with 5,627 companies, followed by Carlisle with 4,382.

Next up is Allerdale with 3,727 and then Barrow with 2,275, Eden with 2,232 and Copeland with 1,769.

These figures follow on from Cumbria enjoying a growing number of registered companies in 2016 19,675 up from 19,348 at the end of 2015.

John Korchak, director of operations at Inform Direct said: “Cumbria had an positive year in 2016 which has continued into 2017, passing the 20,000 milestone for the first time in its history.

"This shows that it offers a positive environment for business – both in terms of new start-ups and existing companies.”