US states by employer firms

Name: US states by employer firms, 2012
Creator: U.S. Census Bureau
License: Public domain (US federal government work, citation requested)

California had the highest employer firms of 51 states in 2012, at 606,523. Alaska had the lowest, at 13,719. The median was 68,004 and the figure for the United States was 5.04 million. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.

Highest606,523California

Lowest13,719Alaska

Median68,00451 states

United States5,039,673History

All states, 2012

CSV Chart (SVG)

count. Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2026-10-10.

Full ranking

Rank	States	2012 count	Change on 2011
1	California	606,523	+1.4%
2	New York	392,118	+1.5%
3	Texas	363,094	+1.9%
4	Florida	355,871	+2.6%
5	Illinois	218,472	+0.4%
6	Pennsylvania	208,231	+0.4%
7	New Jersey	170,862	+1.1%
8	Ohio	168,665	0%
9	Michigan	151,467	+0.5%
10	North Carolina	149,422	+0.4%
11	Georgia	147,920	+0.4%
12	Virginia	132,786	+0.5%
13	Washington	124,494	+0.2%
14	Massachusetts	122,171	+1.2%
15	Colorado	107,375	+0.9%
16	Missouri	101,163	-0.1%
17	Minnesota	100,262	+0.4%
18	Indiana	98,600	+0.1%
19	Wisconsin	96,784	-0.2%
20	Maryland	95,637	+0.9%
21	Tennessee	88,587	-0.3%
22	Arizona	87,971	+0.2%
23	Oregon	77,544	+0.7%
24	Louisiana	73,961	+0.4%
25	South Carolina	70,481	+0.1%
26	Alabama	68,004	-0.5%
27	Oklahoma	65,155	+0.8%
28	Connecticut	64,409	+0.4%
29	Kentucky	61,602	-0.1%
30	Iowa	56,139	+0.4%
31	Kansas	52,640	-0.1%
32	Utah	49,779	+2%
33	Arkansas	45,708	-0.1%
34	Mississippi	41,394	-0.9%
35	Nevada	40,941	+1.2%
36	Nebraska	37,382	+0.8%
37	New Mexico	31,616	-0.1%
38	Idaho	31,248	+0.4%
39	Maine	28,247	-0.4%
40	New Hampshire	27,508	+0.4%
41	Montana	26,782	+1.1%
42	West Virginia	26,549	-0.8%
43	Hawaii	22,686	-0.5%
44	Rhode Island	21,218	+0.2%
45	South Dakota	19,255	+0.7%
46	North Dakota	16,983	+4.1%
47	Delaware	16,864	-0.7%
48	Vermont	16,063	+0.1%
49	District of Columbia	15,638	+0.8%
50	Wyoming	15,562	+1.1%
51	Alaska	13,719	+0.7%

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 and other activities outside the BDS scope. A firm operating in several states or counties is counted in each area, so geographic counts cannot be added to reproduce the national total. This differs from the INE DIRCE active-company count, which includes businesses without employees. Past values can be revised.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the states are compared on one definition. 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.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-10.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank US states by employer firms using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"employer_firms","level":"region","within":"United States","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=employer_firms&level=region&within=United%20States&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which state has the highest employer firms?

California, with 606,523 in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Which state has the lowest employer firms?

Alaska, with 13,719 in 2012.

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 2026-10-10.