UK Registered 158 Sauna Companies in 2025, Twice the Whole of the 2010s, per SaunaNews Count
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Companies with sauna in the name went from 10 in 2019 to 158 in 2025. Scotland has added 59 since 2023, and 37 have been dissolved so far this year, most of them under two years old.
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The UK registered 158 companies with sauna in their names in 2025, according to a SaunaNews count of Companies House records. That is more than twice the 72 registered in the whole of the 2010s, and up from 10 in 2019.
This year is running at the same pace. By October 19, 133 sauna-named companies had been incorporated in 2026, the same number as by the same date last year. Closures are moving faster. Thirty-seven have been dissolved this year, against 23 in all of 2025, and 32 of the 37 were less than two years old.
The count covers every company on the UK register, active or dissolved, whose name includes sauna, saunas, banya or bania. A company is not a venue: the list also holds builders, retailers and holding companies, and some venues trade under names without the word. The UK publishes every company it registers in one place, live or dissolved, so the register shows something US state filings scatter across 50 offices: how fast a sauna wave fills a market, and how soon the young companies start to close.
Company formations track the British Sauna Society’s venue count
British Sauna Society counts show about 45 public sauna sites in early 2023 and 147 by early 2025, figures Sauna for All used when it launched its public sauna charter in Oslo in September. The society now maps more than 600 publicly accessible saunas, Health Club Management reported on September 23. Sauna-named company formations followed the same curve: 40 in 2023, 94 in 2024 and 158 in 2025. Next door, Ireland had 242 independent saunas in March by one industry count, roughly 90% of them opened since 2020. In Japan, licensed sauna baths rose 49% in four years, according to health ministry records.
Most of the new companies describe themselves as places to bathe. Of the 425 formed since the start of 2023, 336 list a leisure, fitness, health or personal-service activity among their industry codes. Of those, 207 list physical well-being activities, the code saunas share with massage and slimming salons. Another 41 list joinery, construction or manufacturing codes, and 35 list retail or wholesale. A company can list more than one code.
Scotland has registered 59 sauna companies since 2023
Scotland has one sauna-named company on record from 2000 through 2019, going by registered office. It has had 59 since January 2023: 4 in 2023, 15 in 2024, 22 in 2025 and 18 in 2026 through mid-October. Wales went from 5 to 18 over the same periods, and Northern Ireland from none to 13. England still holds most of them, with 335 since 2023.
Many of the Scottish sites are outdoors. A map kept by Sauna Culture Scotland showed 118 wild saunas in the country in February, The Lochside Press reported, and the register points the same way. Since 2023, 31 sauna-named companies have taken names with sea, beach, loch, river, lake, wild, lido or similar words in them, against 7 before.
Twenty-six of the new companies are community interest companies
A community interest company, or CIC, is a UK company that must use its assets and profits for a stated community purpose. Twenty-six sauna-named CICs have been formed since 2023, against one before, and 13 of them in 2025 alone. Another 33 companies formed since 2023 use community, social or club in their names, against 3 in all the years before. Glasgow Community Sauna CIC, one of the 2025 class, was incorporated in August 2025.
Some of that runs through one network. Community Sauna Baths, which lists five London sites, set up the Community Sauna Network as a CIC to “connect, support, and fund not-for-profit community sauna initiatives across the UK.” The network’s website lists 13 open sites and 13 more planned for 2026, from Cardiff to Inverness. Bristol Community Sauna CIC, incorporated in January 2024, was the first to join, and the network says it covered the start-up costs.
One in five companies formed since 2023 is already gone
Of the 292 sauna-named companies formed from 2023 through 2025, 63 had been dissolved by mid-October, about one in five. This year’s 37 dissolutions are the most in any year since at least 2010. The median company dissolved in 2026 was 16 months old.
A dissolved company isn’t always a closed sauna. Some never traded, and some owners move a business into a new company. Still, 34 of this year’s 37 came from the 2024 and 2025 classes, the same years the British Sauna Society’s site count took off.
What the register tells operators and builders
- Check the local competition first. Formations in 2026 are running level with 2025, and 408 sauna-named companies are live on the register. Check who already trades within a short drive before you sign a lease.
- Plan for a two-year runway. Most of this year’s dissolutions were companies under two years old. Fund the heater, the cold water and the rent for two years.
- Map the community sites first. The Community Sauna Network alone plans 13 more openings in 2026. A commercial site that opens next to a CIC is competing with a not-for-profit operator.
- A build trade is forming. Forty-one of the companies formed since 2023 list joinery, construction or manufacturing codes. Heater makers and kit suppliers can now sell through UK builders as well as venues.
The UK also sits on the calendar: London Sauna Week runs through October 25 with 28 founding venues.
Source data: Companies House, Open Government Licence v3.0. Company counts as of October 19, 2026. The yearly counts are free to reuse with credit: download the CSV.
