How many trade businesses are there in the Northern Territory?

This dataset holds 681 across 5 trades, measured on 2026-09-22. It is a census of the businesses in this directory rather than of every trade business in the Northern Territory, so treat it as a large sample with a known bias toward businesses that have a public footprint.

How many NT trade businesses publish an ABN you can check?

20.9% — 142 of 681. Nationally the figure is 19.5%, so the Northern Territory sits 7% above it. An ABN is free to look up on the national register, which makes it the cheapest identity check available to a customer.

Who regulates trade licensing in the Northern Territory?

NT Government building practitioner registration, covering building practitioners and electrical workers. Licensing in Australia is a state matter with no national register, so a licence issued elsewhere does not automatically carry over. Check the licence with the regulator in the state where the work is being done.

How many NT businesses list a phone number that doesn't match their website?

8.1% of the 369 we compared, or about 30 businesses. This counts only direct contradictions between a listed number and the number on the business's own site, not missing numbers and not businesses the comparison has not run for.

Which trades in the Northern Territory are best documented?

Plumbers publish a checkable ABN most often at 42.5%, and builders least often at 18.3%. Only trades with at least 40 businesses in the state are compared.

Research

Trade businesses in the Northern Territory, by the numbers

We checked what 681 NT trade businesses publish about themselves, and how much of it holds up against an independent source.

Measured 2026-09-22 · free to reuse with attribution

20.9%

publish a checkable ABN

of all 681. 7% above the national rate of 19.5%.

66.7%

phone number confirmed against their own site

of 369 compared. 12% above the national rate of 59.8%.

8.1%

phone number contradicting their own site

of 369 compared. 19% above the national rate of 6.8%.

81.9%

have a website that loads

of 443 fetched. In line with the 82.6% national rate.

Google reviews for the median business

The national median is 40. Review counts track how often people hire a trade, not how well they do it — a trade you call once a decade will always sit lower.

What stands out

The Northern Territory publishes checkable ABNs at 20.9%, 7% above the 19.5% national rate. Registration rules are set federally — an ABN is the same instrument everywhere — so a state gap is about what businesses choose to publish rather than about who is registered.

30 businesses in the Northern Territory — 8.1% of the 369 numbers we compared — list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website, 19% above the national 6.8%. Worth checking before you call, because the same signature appears on both a listing nobody has updated in years and a lead-reselling service sitting between you and the person who does the work.

Licensing is where the state actually matters. Australia has no national trade register, so a licence is issued and enforced by NT Government building practitioner registration and a licence from another state does not automatically carry over.

Checking a licence in the Northern Territory

NT Government building practitioner registration maintains the public register covering building practitioners and electrical workers. Searching it is free, takes about a minute, and is the only way to confirm a licence is current — a number printed on a van proves nothing on its own.

NT Government building practitioner registration

Step by step: how to check an Australian tradie's licence

NT trades compared

Trades with at least 40 businesses in the Northern Territory. Smaller groups are held back rather than published as percentages that swing on a single record.

Verification coverage for trade businesses in the Northern Territory, by trade
Trade	Businesses	ABN	Phones checked	Phone confirmed	Phone mismatch	Sites checked	Site loads	Median reviews
Mechanics	206	20.4%	72	66.7%	11.1%	92	76.1%	47
Builders	93	18.3%	63	66.7%	1.6%	74	82.4%	5
Electricians	50	30%	33	69.7%	3%	39	84.6%	12
Cleaners	40	27.5%	23	—	—	29	—	11
Plumbers	40	42.5%	27	—	—	33	84.8%	7

Method, and what it can't tell you

681 trade businesses in the Northern Territory. Every one of them gets the same four checks: an ABN lookup against the national register, a comparison of the listed phone number against the number on the business's own website, an HTTP request to that website, and a match against open mapping data maintained separately from Google.

Not all four have run everywhere yet, so the figures above are shares of what has been checked: 369 phone comparisons, 443 website fetches and 545 cross-source matches out of 681 businesses. A check that has not run counts in neither half of a percentage.

This is a census of a directory, not of the trade. It covers businesses with enough of a public footprint to be found at all, which if anything biases these figures upward — a business too small to appear here is less likely to publish an ABN, not more.

ABN registration is the one figure taken over every business in the group rather than over a checked subset, because an absent ABN is not a failed lookup — read it as a floor. Review counts and averages are held; individual reviews are not, so nothing here can tell you whether a business's reviews arrived steadily or all at once.

Full method and national figures: the state of Australian trade business data.

Common questions

How many trade businesses are there in the Northern Territory?: This dataset holds 681 across 5 trades, measured on 2026-09-22. It is a census of the businesses in this directory rather than of every trade business in the Northern Territory, so treat it as a large sample with a known bias toward businesses that have a public footprint.
How many NT trade businesses publish an ABN you can check?: 20.9% — 142 of 681. Nationally the figure is 19.5%, so the Northern Territory sits 7% above it. An ABN is free to look up on the national register, which makes it the cheapest identity check available to a customer.
Who regulates trade licensing in the Northern Territory?: NT Government building practitioner registration, covering building practitioners and electrical workers. Licensing in Australia is a state matter with no national register, so a licence issued elsewhere does not automatically carry over. Check the licence with the regulator in the state where the work is being done.
How many NT businesses list a phone number that doesn't match their website?: 8.1% of the 369 we compared, or about 30 businesses. This counts only direct contradictions between a listed number and the number on the business's own site, not missing numbers and not businesses the comparison has not run for.
Which trades in the Northern Territory are best documented?: Plumbers publish a checkable ABN most often at 42.5%, and builders least often at 18.3%. Only trades with at least 40 businesses in the state are compared.

Using these numbers

Free to quote, chart or republish under CC BY 4.0, which asks only for attribution and a link. The full aggregate dataset is available as a free download. If you need a cut that isn't published, ask.

WhoToHire, “NT trade business data 2026”, 2026-09-22. https://whotohire.com.au/research/states/nt

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