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Chart showing the Number of small businesses by state: top 10

Number of Small Businesses by State

There are currently33.2 million small businessesin the United States, making up nearly all US businesses. As an aspiring entrepreneur, understanding the landscape of small businesses allows you to better plan for your company. So aside from knowing what thebest states to start a businessare, you need to also know where there’s most (and least) competition.

这是一个排名的小型企业by state.

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Number of small businesses by state: top 10

According to theUS Small Business Administration’s latest report, the state with the largest number of small businesses is California. As of 2022, there were 4.24 million small businesses there, representing 99.8% of the state’s total number of businesses and hiring 7.4 million employees. Thenumber of small businesses in Californiahas been increasing year after year in recent years. In 2016, there were 3.7 million small businesses there.

Texas and Florida are next on the ranking of the number of small businesses by state. There are 3.1 million and three million small businesses there, respectively. New York ranks in fourth place, with 2.3 million. Incidentally, California, Texas, Florida, and New York are also thefour most populous US states.

Georgia and Illinois follow—each is home to 1.2 million small businesses. Close behind, with 1.1 million, Pennsylvania is the state with the seventh-highest number of small businesses. Ohio, North Carolina, and New Jersey wrap up the top 10, with between 950,000 and one million registered small businesses.

States with the smallest number of small businesses

Chart showing the States with the smallest number of small businesses

On the other end of this list ranking the number of small businesses by state is Wyoming, the state with the fewest small businesses. There are just over 72,000 small businesses registered there, a fraction of the number in California.

This is followed by Alaska, with 74,587 small businesses. Despite it being the largest US state in terms of land mass, Alaska is one of the least-populous states.

North Dakota and Vermont are next, with 75,265 and 78,883 registered small businesses, respectively.

The remaining states on the list are as follows:

  1. South Dakota: 90,274
  2. Delaware: 93,686
  3. Rhode Island: 108,360
  4. West Virginia: 111,614
  5. Montana: 129,180
  6. New Hampshire: 138,199

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