The number of new businesses reached its highest level in almost six years last month, according to new figures from Vision-net.

A total of 1,512 start-ups were incorporated in January, the biggest number since April 2008, when 1,541 new businesses were established.

The number of new start-ups is up 11 per cent on January 2013, when 150 fewer firms were incorporated.

Almost a quarter of the businesses established last month were in professional services with a further 10.9 per cent in wholesale and retail, 8.1 per cent in construction and 7.8 per cent in IT.

The highest increases in new businesses since the start of 2008 were in agriculture with 3.4 per cent more start-ups. During the same period, the number of construction and property-related firms declined by 6 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively.

The number of new leasing start-ups have doubled as a proportion of all start-ups overall, from 1.7 per cent to 3.7 per cent over the six years, the figures show.