US counties by employer firms
Los Angeles County had the highest employer firms of 3142 counties in 2017, at 194,779. Loving County had the lowest, at 3. The median was 455 and the figure for the United States was 5.25 million. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.
Map of counties, 2017
Top 40 counties, 2017
Full ranking
Other periods
About this ranking
Number of firms in the private nonfarm sectors covered by the US Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics. Establishments under common ownership form one firm.
Excludes nonemployer businesses. Differs from active_companies, the INE DIRCE count, which includes businesses without employees.
Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the counties are compared on one definition. 2 counties with data in other periods have no value for 2017 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.
How to cite
U.S. Census Bureau. Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-11.Citation styles
APA 7
U.S. Census Bureau. (2025). Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties (US counties by employer firms, 2017) [Data set]. Retrieved October 11, 2026, from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv
MLA 9
Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties, US counties by employer firms, 2017. U.S. Census Bureau, 25 Sept. 2025, https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/us-counties?period=2017. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.
Chicago (author-date)
U.S. Census Bureau. 2025. Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. US counties by employer firms, 2017. Dataset. Accessed October 11, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/us-counties?period=2017.
Harvard
U.S. Census Bureau (2025) Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties, US counties by employer firms, 2017 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/us-counties?period=2017 (Accessed: 11 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{census_us_counties_by_employer_2017,
author = {{U.S. Census Bureau}},
title = {{Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties: US counties by employer firms, 2017}},
year = {2025},
howpublished = {Data set},
url = {https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv},
urldate = {2026-10-11},
note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/us-counties?period=2017. Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023\_st\_cty.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-11.},
}
RIS
TY - DATA
AU - U.S. Census Bureau
TI - Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties: US counties by employer firms, 2017
PY - 2025
DA - 2025/09/25
PB - U.S. Census Bureau
DB - Invokely
UR - https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv
L2 - https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/us-counties?period=2017
Y2 - 2026/10/11
N1 - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/us-counties?period=2017.
N1 - Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-11.
ER -
Use this data in your AI agent
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Rank US counties by employer firms using official data, and cite the source.
rank_places {"indicator":"employer_firms","level":"province","within":"United States","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=employer_firms&level=province&within=United%20States&limit=10Questions
Which county has the highest employer firms?
Los Angeles County, with 194,779 in 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Which county has the lowest employer firms?
Loving County, with 3 in 2017.
Where does this ranking come from?
Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. Retrieved 2026-10-11. 2 counties have no value for 2017 and are not ranked.
Employer firms: other rankings
US counties: more rankings
- Business revenue: retail trade (Economic Census)
- Business revenue: transportation and warehousing (Economic Census)
- Business revenue: finance and insurance (Economic Census)
- Business revenue: utilities (Economic Census)
- Covered employment (QCEW)
- Households with a broadband internet subscription
- Gross domestic product (GDP), US dollars
- Unemployment rate