The "entrepreneurial spirit" of Dungannon people makes the County Tyrone town the best place in the UK to do business.

So said Dungannon Enterprise Centre Chief Executive Brian McCauley, when he heard the town had outdone the rest of the UK in terms of business success, based on an analysis of data from Companies House, the official businesses register.

Mr McCauley also credited the town's "get on with it" attitude, family-owned businesses and strong work ethic for helping it punch above its weight.

The Tyrone Courier newspaper reported on the data, which shows Dungannon comes out on top for seeing more businesses created than closed down in the last 24 years.

The town is not immune to the problem of empty shopfronts.

But traders have come out fighting hard - based on data collected between 1988 and 2012, a total of 1,862 businesses were created in Dungannon while 522 were dissolved.

That means the town has the best UK ratio of firms being created as opposed to closing down, excluding tax havens such as the Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

Dungannon has a business creation to dissolution ratio of 72 percent, beating the City of London (30.6%) hands-down.

The figures were compiled by UK business intelligence firm QlikView in an examination of UK growth.

Mr McCauley said Dungannon was located in a "unique economic bubble", and told the Courier: "The strong entrepreneurial spirit among local people has meant that we have been able to spawn new businesses that are prepared to work hard and take risks. People don't buy the story that because we are in a recession we should act like we are in a recession."

(NE/GK)