What is the difference between a private company and a public company?

Question

What is the difference between a private company and a public company?

Answer 1

'Just the' is correct but a private companies financial info.is available to a certain extent from Companies House.  It will cost £4 to do it, but you can see an abbreviated version of the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet of a private limited company.

Answer 2

As the names imply, public companies have public shareholders, and the stock is traded on an exchange (or over the counter). Financial statements are publicly available.

A private company's shares are not traded, and information about the company's financial statements is not public.

Edit: I should point out that the above applies in the US - in other countries (as noted below) some limited financial info may be available