The number of empty shops in the towns in the North is twice the figure for the South, Local Data Company research suggests.
The research found that one in five shops in the North is now empty, compared with one in ten shops in the South.
Of these vacant stores, 20% had been vacant for more than three years.
The average vacancy rate was 13.3% in the second half of last year, down by 0.8 percentage points on the same period a year earlier.
The North East was the worst-affected region, posting a shop vacancy rate of 18.8% in the second half of 2014.
London remains the best-performing area with a vacancy rate of just 8.7%.
