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Reviewed by our in-house tax team before publishing. Every figure is validated against:
Last reviewed: November 12, 2026
The United States had 36,207,130 small businesses, according to the SBA Office of Advocacy's Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business (February 2026), which is built on Census Bureau counts for 2022. The figure adds 29,811,495 businesses without employees (82.3%) to 6,395,635 employer firms (17.7%). Small businesses were 99.9% of all US firms and employed 62.3 million people, 45.9% of private-sector employees. The newest Census release counts 31,985,874 businesses without employees in 2024, 2.17 million more than in 2022; the matching count of employer firms for 2024 has not been published.
Key takeaways:
There were 36.2 million small businesses in the United States in 2022, the latest year with both Census business counts. The SBA Office of Advocacy defines a small business for research as an independent business with fewer than 500 employees and combines two Census Bureau programs: Nonemployer Statistics (NES), which counts businesses with no paid employees from income tax records, and Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB), which counts employer firms by total employment.
| Component, 2022 | Count | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses without employees (nonemployers) | 29,811,495 | Census NES 2022 |
| Employer firms with fewer than 500 employees | 6,374,594 | Census SUSB 2022 |
| Small businesses | 36,186,089 | SBA 2025 Small Business Profile, United States |
| Employer firms with 500 or more employees | 21,041 | Census SUSB 2022 |
| All firms | 36,207,130 | SBA Advocacy FAQ, February 2026 |
The FAQ's headline of 36,207,130 adds every employer firm, including the 21,041 with 500 or more employees that the same FAQ lists as large businesses. Counting only firms under 500 employees gives 36,186,089, the total in Advocacy's 2025 Small Business Profile for the United States. Both round to 36.2 million, and small firms are 99.94% of all firms (our calculation).
No count for 2025 or 2026 exists yet. Census released SUSB 2022 in 2025 and has not published SUSB for 2023 or later as of November 10, 2026. Nonemployer counts are newer:
| Year | Businesses without employees | Change from prior year | Receipts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 29,811,495 | not comparable | $1.73 trillion |
| 2023 | 30,427,808 | +2.1% | $1.75 trillion |
| 2024 | 31,985,874 | +5.1% | $1.86 trillion |
Source: Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics, US files for 2022, 2023 and 2024 (receipts published in thousands of dollars). Changes are our calculation.
The 2023 figure is the one our self-employment statistics for 2026 cite; the 2024 release adds 1,558,066 businesses on top of it. Census changed its receipts cutoffs starting with 2022 and recommends against analyzing several NES years as a time series, so read year-to-year changes as approximate; 2022 through 2024 use the same cutoffs. Adding the 2024 nonemployer count to the 2022 count of employer firms under 500 gives 38,360,468 (our calculation). That mixes two years and no agency publishes it, so treat it as an approximation, not an official count.
6,374,594 US firms with employees had fewer than 500 workers in 2022, 99.7% of the 6,395,635 employer firms in Census SUSB 2022. Most are tiny: 4,029,041 firms, 63.0% of all employer firms, had fewer than 5 employees, and 5,720,093 (89.4%) had fewer than 20 (our calculation). The 21,041 firms with 500 or more employees, 0.3% of the total, employed 73,497,851 people, 54.1% of everyone on a private payroll.
| Firm size (employees) | Employer firms | Share of firms | Employees | Share of employees | Share of payroll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5 | 4,029,041 | 63.0% | 6,295,615 | 4.6% | 4.0% |
| 5 to 9 | 1,034,135 | 16.2% | 6,810,300 | 5.0% | 3.5% |
| 10 to 19 | 656,917 | 10.3% | 8,844,269 | 6.5% | 4.7% |
| 20 to 99 | 561,160 | 8.8% | 21,976,701 | 16.2% | 13.1% |
| 100 to 499 | 93,341 | 1.5% | 18,323,671 | 13.5% | 13.4% |
| 500 or more | 21,041 | 0.3% | 73,497,851 | 54.1% | 61.3% |
| All employer firms | 6,395,635 | 100% | 135,748,407 | 100% | 100% |
Source: Census Bureau SUSB 2022, us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022. Size classes 10 to 19, 20 to 99, 100 to 499 and 500 or more are sums of detailed classes; shares are our calculation.
SUSB sizes a firm by its employees in the pay period including March 12, summed across all its locations. The under-5 class also holds employer firms that paid wages during the year but had nobody on payroll in mid-March. For owners weighing a first hire, the employee cost calculator adds 2026 employer payroll taxes and benefits to a salary.
Most small employers are S corporations. 3,508,431 firms, 55.0% of employer firms under 500 employees, were S corporations in 2022, against 13.9% C corporations, 12.3% sole proprietorships and 12.1% partnerships, according to SUSB 2022 legal-form tables (a firm can appear under more than one form). Among businesses without employees the order flips: 27,644,187 of the 31,985,874 nonemployers in 2024, 86.4%, were sole proprietorships (our calculation from NES 2024). Our guides to sole proprietorship vs LLC and S corp vs LLC cover what each structure means for tax.
Firms with fewer than 500 employees employed 62,250,556 people in March 2022, 45.9% of the 135,748,407 employees in Census SUSB, and paid $3.47 trillion of the $8.97 trillion in annual private payroll, 38.7%. They reported $17.78 trillion in receipts, 35.0% of the total.
| Measure, 2022 | Firms under 500 employees | All employer firms | Small business share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employer firms | 6,374,594 | 6,395,635 | 99.7% |
| Employees (pay period including March 12) | 62,250,556 | 135,748,407 | 45.9% |
| Annual payroll | $3.47 trillion | $8.97 trillion | 38.7% |
| Receipts | $17.78 trillion | $50.85 trillion | 35.0% |
Source: Census Bureau SUSB 2022 (payroll and receipts published in thousands of dollars). Shares are our calculation and match the SBA Advocacy FAQ, February 2026.
Pay per employee is lower at small firms: $55,663 of annual payroll per mid-March employee, against $74,832 at firms with 500 or more employees (our calculation). SUSB leaves out the self-employed, private household workers, railroad employees, crop and livestock farms and most government employees, so "private-sector employees" here means SUSB's universe.
Small firms add more jobs than their share of employment suggests. From January 1995 to December 2024, small businesses created 20.7 million net new jobs and large businesses 13.2 million, so small firms accounted for 61% of net job creation, according to the SBA FAQ's analysis of BLS Business Employment Dynamics. Advocacy counts a growing firm's gains as small-firm gains until it crosses 500 employees.
California had the most small businesses in 2022, 4,340,784, followed by Texas with 3,517,343 and Florida with 3,485,976, according to the SBA Office of Advocacy's 2025 Small Business Profiles. New York (2,378,996) and Georgia (1,374,972) completed the top five.
| Rank | State | Small businesses | Without employees | Employer firms under 500 | Share of private employees at small firms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 4,340,784 | 3,502,950 | 837,834 | 47.4% |
| 2 | Texas | 3,517,343 | 3,023,525 | 493,818 | 44.4% |
| 3 | Florida | 3,485,976 | 2,968,201 | 517,775 | 39.6% |
| 4 | New York | 2,378,996 | 1,923,517 | 455,479 | 46.6% |
| 5 | Georgia | 1,374,972 | 1,175,541 | 199,431 | 42.5% |
| 6 | Illinois | 1,353,957 | 1,100,655 | 253,302 | 43.7% |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | 1,169,008 | 938,764 | 230,244 | 45.2% |
| 8 | North Carolina | 1,107,537 | 914,586 | 192,951 | 44.2% |
| 9 | Ohio | 1,081,292 | 898,451 | 182,841 | 43.8% |
| 10 | New Jersey | 1,051,630 | 856,771 | 194,859 | 48.8% |
Source: SBA Office of Advocacy, 2025 Small Business Profiles. We recomputed every state count from the Census NES 2022 and SUSB 2022 files and all 51 match.
A firm with locations in several states counts once in each state, so the 51 state counts sum to 36,272,409, which is 86,320 more than the national total (our calculation). Firm size is national: a branch of a company with 500 or more employees counts as large in every state.
Florida had the most small businesses per resident in 2022, 155.5 per 1,000 people, followed by Wyoming (140.8) and Vermont (126.5), according to Jupid analysis of SBA profile counts and Census Vintage 2025 population estimates for July 1, 2022. West Virginia had the fewest, 66.5 per 1,000. The national rate was 108.3.
| Rank | Most per 1,000 residents | Rate | Rank | Fewest per 1,000 residents | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | 155.5 | 51 | West Virginia | 66.5 |
| 2 | Wyoming | 140.8 | 50 | New Mexico | 81.5 |
| 3 | Vermont | 126.5 | 49 | Wisconsin | 84.3 |
| 4 | Georgia | 125.8 | 48 | Indiana | 86.5 |
| 5 | Montana | 125.7 | 47 | Kentucky | 87.1 |
| 6 | Colorado | 124.9 | 46 | Washington | 89.3 |
| 7 | District of Columbia | 122.6 | 45 | Pennsylvania | 90.0 |
| 8 | New York | 120.7 | 44 | Iowa | 90.6 |
| 9 | Texas | 116.8 | 43 | Alabama | 91.7 |
| 10 | Maine | 115.1 | 42 | Ohio | 91.9 |
Florida's lead comes from businesses without employees, 85.1% of its small businesses (our calculation), and Florida also has the lowest share of private employees working at small firms, 39.6%. Small firms employ the largest shares in Montana (66.3%), Wyoming (65.2%) and Vermont (62.1%); in 15 states, counting DC, they employ half or more. Census places a nonemployer mostly by the business mailing address in tax records, which may differ from where the work happens.
The 2024 nonemployer counts moved fastest from 2022 in Florida (+15.5%), Wyoming (+11.4%) and Delaware (+11.2%), and slowest in the District of Columbia (+0.1%), per Jupid analysis of Census NES. For where new businesses are filing now, see our new business statistics for 2026.
All 50 states and DC. Small businesses, nonemployers and employer firms are 2022 counts from the SBA 2025 profiles; per-capita rates use Census Vintage 2025 population for July 1, 2022; nonemployers for 2024 come from Census NES 2024.
| State | Small businesses, 2022 | Without employees, 2022 | Employer firms under 500, 2022 | Per 1,000 residents | Share of private employees at small firms | Nonemployers, 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 465,610 | 390,228 | 75,382 | 91.7 | 46.0% | 399,018 |
| Alaska | 77,814 | 60,471 | 17,343 | 106.1 | 54.2% | 61,625 |
| Arizona | 706,640 | 585,251 | 121,389 | 95.9 | 42.6% | 626,658 |
| Arkansas | 292,728 | 241,619 | 51,109 | 96.1 | 46.1% | 250,682 |
| California | 4,340,784 | 3,502,950 | 837,834 | 110.9 | 47.4% | 3,686,618 |
| Colorado | 730,887 | 583,986 | 146,901 | 124.9 | 48.6% | 627,479 |
| Connecticut | 381,129 | 312,711 | 68,418 | 105.3 | 48.1% | 331,901 |
| Delaware | 111,346 | 88,530 | 22,816 | 109.1 | 50.6% | 98,475 |
| District of Columbia | 82,666 | 65,130 | 17,536 | 122.6 | 49.1% | 65,195 |
| Florida | 3,485,976 | 2,968,201 | 517,775 | 155.5 | 39.6% | 3,427,341 |
| Georgia | 1,374,972 | 1,175,541 | 199,431 | 125.8 | 42.5% | 1,236,191 |
| Hawaii | 144,375 | 119,647 | 24,728 | 100.4 | 49.6% | 122,958 |
| Idaho | 207,670 | 160,914 | 46,756 | 106.9 | 56.0% | 171,767 |
| Illinois | 1,353,957 | 1,100,655 | 253,302 | 107.4 | 43.7% | 1,160,612 |
| Indiana | 591,671 | 480,921 | 110,750 | 86.5 | 43.2% | 506,144 |
| Iowa | 289,962 | 228,133 | 61,829 | 90.6 | 46.0% | 233,080 |
| Kansas | 273,419 | 217,018 | 56,401 | 93.1 | 48.9% | 225,755 |
| Kentucky | 393,860 | 328,057 | 65,803 | 87.1 | 42.6% | 346,066 |
| Louisiana | 511,235 | 430,224 | 81,011 | 111.1 | 54.1% | 436,534 |
| Maine | 160,215 | 125,923 | 34,292 | 115.1 | 54.5% | 130,647 |
| Maryland | 696,710 | 586,327 | 110,383 | 112.7 | 47.9% | 620,896 |
| Massachusetts | 756,096 | 612,132 | 143,964 | 107.6 | 44.7% | 654,863 |
| Michigan | 983,079 | 809,426 | 173,653 | 97.9 | 47.7% | 846,004 |
| Minnesota | 560,428 | 442,345 | 118,083 | 97.8 | 45.8% | 467,494 |
| Mississippi | 294,768 | 251,172 | 43,596 | 100.2 | 47.0% | 264,439 |
| Missouri | 590,131 | 475,437 | 114,694 | 95.5 | 44.4% | 498,312 |
| Montana | 141,011 | 105,934 | 35,077 | 125.7 | 66.3% | 111,818 |
| Nebraska | 193,495 | 150,120 | 43,375 | 98.1 | 47.5% | 160,736 |
| Nevada | 353,621 | 294,529 | 59,092 | 111.3 | 45.0% | 316,513 |
| New Hampshire | 145,314 | 114,903 | 30,411 | 104.0 | 50.3% | 119,849 |
| New Jersey | 1,051,630 | 856,771 | 194,859 | 113.1 | 48.8% | 924,331 |
| New Mexico | 172,113 | 138,557 | 33,556 | 81.5 | 53.3% | 145,351 |
| New York | 2,378,996 | 1,923,517 | 455,479 | 120.7 | 46.6% | 2,097,883 |
| North Carolina | 1,107,537 | 914,586 | 192,951 | 103.5 | 44.2% | 978,568 |
| North Dakota | 78,219 | 59,106 | 19,113 | 100.3 | 57.6% | 62,042 |
| Ohio | 1,081,292 | 898,451 | 182,841 | 91.9 | 43.8% | 943,892 |
| Oklahoma | 395,520 | 323,064 | 72,456 | 98.3 | 50.8% | 337,237 |
| Oregon | 417,747 | 320,778 | 96,969 | 98.4 | 53.4% | 336,938 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,169,008 | 938,764 | 230,244 | 90.0 | 45.2% | 1,001,577 |
| Rhode Island | 116,149 | 92,358 | 23,791 | 105.8 | 51.1% | 98,258 |
| South Carolina | 530,402 | 440,037 | 90,365 | 100.3 | 42.9% | 482,483 |
| South Dakota | 96,770 | 74,028 | 22,742 | 106.4 | 58.0% | 78,059 |
| Tennessee | 741,196 | 637,340 | 103,856 | 104.9 | 41.5% | 675,058 |
| Texas | 3,517,343 | 3,023,525 | 493,818 | 116.8 | 44.4% | 3,318,535 |
| Utah | 371,569 | 294,809 | 76,760 | 109.5 | 45.4% | 323,310 |
| Vermont | 81,949 | 64,930 | 17,019 | 126.5 | 62.1% | 65,998 |
| Virginia | 880,366 | 722,562 | 157,804 | 101.4 | 45.9% | 767,222 |
| Washington | 695,695 | 533,681 | 162,014 | 89.3 | 48.7% | 568,425 |
| West Virginia | 118,045 | 93,669 | 24,376 | 66.5 | 47.4% | 97,448 |
| Wisconsin | 497,370 | 389,776 | 107,594 | 84.3 | 48.0% | 407,662 |
| Wyoming | 81,924 | 62,751 | 19,173 | 140.8 | 65.2% | 69,927 |
| United States | 36,186,089 | 29,811,495 | 6,374,594 | 108.3 | 45.9% | 31,985,874 |
Source: SBA Office of Advocacy, 2025 Small Business Profiles; Census Bureau NES 2022 and 2024 state files and SUSB 2022; Census Vintage 2025 state population estimates (NST-EST2025-ALLDATA). Per-capita rates and ranks are Jupid analysis. The US row is the national count, not the sum of states.
Professional, scientific and technical services had the most small businesses in 2022, 4,881,738, followed by transportation and warehousing (4,089,883) and other services such as repair and personal care (3,860,519), according to the SBA's 2025 Small Business Profile for the United States. Transportation is almost all businesses without employees: 3,854,720 of its 4,089,883 small businesses had no employees.
| Industry (NAICS sector) | Small businesses | Without employees | Employer firms under 500 | Small firms' share of sector employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 4,881,738 | 4,013,209 | 868,529 | 55.4% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 4,089,883 | 3,854,720 | 235,163 | 33.2% |
| Other services | 3,860,519 | 3,132,683 | 727,836 | 85.0% |
| Construction | 3,656,782 | 2,875,590 | 781,192 | 80.7% |
| Real estate and rental and leasing | 3,510,689 | 3,145,367 | 365,322 | 66.5% |
| Administrative, support and waste management | 3,191,552 | 2,819,562 | 371,990 | 28.7% |
| Health care and social assistance | 2,945,484 | 2,256,042 | 689,442 | 43.7% |
| Retail trade | 2,813,437 | 2,170,322 | 643,115 | 34.2% |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 1,826,562 | 1,679,020 | 147,542 | 63.7% |
| Accommodation and food services | 1,196,494 | 624,030 | 572,464 | 62.8% |
| Finance and insurance | 1,025,328 | 782,618 | 242,710 | 27.5% |
| Educational services | 961,974 | 859,958 | 102,016 | 47.3% |
| Wholesale trade | 720,548 | 445,919 | 274,629 | 52.3% |
| Manufacturing | 632,885 | 397,797 | 235,088 | 40.9% |
| Information | 484,247 | 396,260 | 87,987 | 26.8% |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting | 286,246 | 263,748 | 22,498 | 83.2% |
| Mining, quarrying, oil and gas | 94,390 | 77,387 | 17,003 | 47.4% |
| Utilities | 23,829 | 17,263 | 6,566 | 18.8% |
| Management of companies | 18,040 | not published | 18,040 | 10.3% |
Source: SBA 2025 Small Business Profile, United States; employment shares are our calculation from SUSB 2022. A business active in several industries counts in each, so rows sum to more than the national total. Crop and livestock farms are outside both Census datasets.
Small firms employ 85.0% of private employees in other services and 80.7% in construction, but 26.8% in information and 18.8% in utilities, where a few large companies hold most jobs.
No single definition exists. The SBA Office of Advocacy uses fewer than 500 employees for research, and every count above follows that rule. SBA programs, from loan guarantees to federal contracting set-asides, use the size standards in 13 CFR 121.201, which vary by industry and were last changed on March 17, 2023, according to the eCFR.
The table sets a standard for 978 six-digit NAICS industries: 496 by average annual receipts, 478 by number of employees and 4 depository and credit-card industries by assets ($850 million), by our count of the eCFR table. Receipts standards run from $2.25 million to $47 million. Employee standards run from 100 to 1,500. Only 47 industries use 500 employees.
| Industry (NAICS code) | SBA size standard |
|---|---|
| Offices of certified public accountants (541211) | $26.5 million in receipts |
| Custom computer programming services (541511) | $34.0 million in receipts |
| Residential remodelers (236118) | $45.0 million in receipts |
| Full-service restaurants (722511) | $11.5 million in receipts |
| Beauty salons (812112) | $9.5 million in receipts |
| Soybean farming (111110) | $2.25 million in receipts |
| Furniture merchant wholesalers (423210) | 100 employees |
| New car dealers (441110) | 200 employees |
| Retail bakeries (311811) | 500 employees |
| Tire manufacturing, except retreading (326211) | 1,500 employees |
Source: 13 CFR 121.201, eCFR version current on November 6, 2026.
The measurement differs too. SUSB counts employees in one mid-March pay period. SBA averages employees over the preceding 24 months, counts part-time and temporary staff like full-time staff, and adds affiliates (13 CFR 121.106); for most programs it averages receipts over the latest five completed fiscal years (13 CFR 121.104). A tire maker with 600 employees can be small for SBA programs but is large in the Census counts. A furniture wholesaler with 150 employees is the reverse.
Census sets its own floor for businesses without employees: no paid employees, subject to federal income tax, and at least $1,000 in receipts ($1 in construction).
We downloaded every source file on November 10, 2026: the SBA Advocacy FAQ PDF (February 2026) and the US, 50 state and DC profiles from the 2025 Small Business Profiles; Census SUSB 2022 files us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.txt and us_state_naicssector_lfo_2022.xlsx; Census NES US and state files for 2022 through 2024 (2024 data released September 29, 2026); Census Vintage 2025 state population (NST-EST2025-ALLDATA.csv); and 13 CFR 121.201, 121.104 and 121.106 from the eCFR. We rebuilt each state and industry count from the Census files and matched the SBA profiles exactly. Shares, per-capita rates, ranks, growth rates and size-standard counts are Jupid analysis. Census should publish SUSB for 2023 next; we will update this page when it does.
How to cite: Jupid, "How Many Small Businesses in the US? 2026 Statistics by State," November 2026, https://jupid.com/blog/small-business-statistics-2026 (data: SBA Office of Advocacy FAQ, February 2026; Census SUSB 2022 and Nonemployer Statistics 2024).
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This page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute tax, legal, or accounting advice. Statistics reflect the latest data each agency published as of November 10, 2026 and use each agency's own definitions; whether a specific business counts as small for an SBA program depends on its industry size standard. For advice specific to your situation, consult a qualified tax professional.
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