Counties in Washington by employer firms

King County had the highest employer firms of 39 counties in 2016, at 48,404. Garfield County had the lowest, at 41. The median was 1,184 and the figure for Washington was 132,184. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.

Highest48,404King County

Lowest41Garfield County

Median1,18439 counties

Washington132,184History

Map of counties, 2016

Under 200
200 to 700
700 to 1,200
1,200 to 1,700
1,700 to 4,800
4,800 and over

count, 2016. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All counties, 2016

count. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. Retrieved 2026-10-11.

Full ranking

Rank	Counties	2016 count	Change on 2015
1	King County	48,404	+1.8%
2	Snohomish County	14,076	+2.1%
3	Pierce County	13,259	+1.9%
4	Spokane County	9,623	+1.5%
5	Clark County	8,366	+4%
6	Whatcom County	5,285	+2.6%
7	Thurston County	4,928	+1.7%
8	Kitsap County	4,496	+1.3%
9	Yakima County	3,702	+0.2%
10	Benton County	3,400	+1.4%
11	Skagit County	2,900	+1.7%
12	Chelan County	2,116	+1.7%
13	Cowlitz County	1,802	+0.5%
14	Clallam County	1,709	+1.5%
15	Lewis County	1,542	-0.8%
16	Grant County	1,486	+2.3%
17	Island County	1,468	+1.9%
18	Grays Harbor County	1,379	+0.2%
19	Franklin County	1,264	+2.8%
20	Walla Walla County	1,184	+0.1%
21	Kittitas County	1,040	+2%
22	Okanogan County	932	+4.3%
23	Mason County	877	+0.2%
24	Jefferson County	875	+0.5%
25	San Juan County	828	+0.9%
26	Stevens County	710	+4.7%
27	Whitman County	692	-2.5%
28	Douglas County	649	+5.4%
29	Pacific County	485	-1%
30	Klickitat County	446	-3.5%
31	Asotin County	385	+3.8%
32	Adams County	309	-1%
33	Pend Oreille County	189	-4.5%
34	Lincoln County	188	+2.7%
35	Skamania County	155	+2.6%
36	Ferry County	119	-1.7%
37	Columbia County	94	-7.8%
38	Wahkiakum County	69	0%
39	Garfield County	41	+5.1%

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. 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

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Census Bureau. (2025). Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties (Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016) [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, Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016. 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/washington-counties?period=2016. Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Census Bureau. 2025. Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties. Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016. 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/washington-counties?period=2016.

Harvard

U.S. Census Bureau (2025) Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties, Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016 [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/washington-counties?period=2016 (Accessed: 11 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{census_counties_in_washington_by_2016,
  author = {{U.S. Census Bureau}},
  title = {{Business Dynamics Statistics: employer firms, all covered industries, nation, states and counties: Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016}},
  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/washington-counties?period=2016. 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: Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016
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/washington-counties?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/11
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employer-firms/washington-counties?period=2016.
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  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/employer-firms/washington-counties?period=2016" width="760" height="500" title="Counties in Washington by employer firms, 2016, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

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 Counties in Washington by employer firms using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"employer_firms","level":"province","within":"Washington","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=employer_firms&level=province&within=Washington&limit=10

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

Questions

Which county has the highest employer firms?

King County, with 48,404 in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Which county has the lowest employer firms?

Garfield County, with 41 in 2016.

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.