Counties in California by establishment entry rate

Sierra County had the highest establishment entry rate of 57 counties in 2016, at 15.686%. Inyo County had the lowest, at 6.969%. The median was 9.922% and the figure for California was 11.346%. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.

Highest15.686Sierra County

Lowest6.969Inyo County

Median9.92257 counties

California11.346History

Map of counties, 2016

Under 9
9 to 9.5
9.5 to 9.9
9.9 to 11
11 and over
No data

%, 2016. Hatched areas have no value for this period. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All counties, 2016

%. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	Counties	2016 (%)	Change on 2015
1	Sierra County	15.686	+7.52 pts
2	Placer County	12.391	+1.18 pts
3	El Dorado County	12.367	+0.22 pts
4	Los Angeles County	12.13	+0.12 pts
5	Riverside County	12.099	-0.22 pts
6	Orange County	11.85	+0.56 pts
7	San Diego County	11.703	-0.09 pts
8	San Francisco County	11.563	-0.46 pts
9	Santa Clara County	11.496	+0.3 pts
10	Calaveras County	11.358	+0.5 pts
11	Contra Costa County	11.305	+0.86 pts
12	Sacramento County	11.261	+0.12 pts
13	Mariposa County	11.258	+2.18 pts
14	Yolo County	11.158	+0.61 pts
15	Alameda County	11.117	+0.42 pts
16	San Bernardino County	11.105	+0.08 pts
17	San Benito County	11.048	+1.38 pts
18	San Mateo County	10.864	-0.03 pts
19	Mono County	10.65	+1.51 pts
20	Ventura County	10.596	+0.02 pts
21	Nevada County	10.231	-0.35 pts
22	Marin County	10.078	-0.18 pts
23	Imperial County	10.041	-0.08 pts
24	Sonoma County	9.992	+0.24 pts
25	Santa Barbara County	9.97	+0.38 pts
26	San Joaquin County	9.962	-0.19 pts
27	Colusa County	9.956	+2.01 pts
28	Solano County	9.936	+0.54 pts
29	Amador County	9.922	+1.98 pts
30	Lake County	9.883	+0.01 pts
31	Fresno County	9.832	+0.4 pts
32	Madera County	9.827	-0.67 pts
33	San Luis Obispo County	9.795	-0.79 pts
34	Kern County	9.783	-0.6 pts
35	Stanislaus County	9.704	+0.05 pts
36	Monterey County	9.634	+0.57 pts
37	Butte County	9.607	+0.21 pts
38	Sutter County	9.497	+0.39 pts
39	Siskiyou County	9.453	+1.43 pts
40	Merced County	9.364	-1.23 pts
41	Napa County	9.241	-0.23 pts
42	Plumas County	9.221	-5.33 pts
43	Trinity County	9.195	+2.42 pts
44	Santa Cruz County	9.144	-0.9 pts
45	Mendocino County	9.093	+0.75 pts
46	Tehama County	9.081	-2.55 pts
47	Yuba County	9.06	-0.99 pts
48	Lassen County	9.041	-2.47 pts
49	Tulare County	9.006	-0.61 pts
50	Glenn County	8.511	+1.32 pts
51	Modoc County	8.481	-0.58 pts
52	Tuolumne County	8.377	-1.98 pts
53	Shasta County	8.271	-1.15 pts
54	Kings County	7.778	+0.66 pts
55	Humboldt County	7.639	-0.69 pts
56	Del Norte County	7.622	-3.87 pts
57	Inyo County	6.969	-0.22 pts

Other periods

About this ranking

Establishments that opened during the year (employees in March of the year and none a year earlier), as a percentage of the average number of establishments in the two years. United States: Census Bureau Business Dynamics Statistics.

An establishment is a single physical location, so a new branch of an existing firm counts as an entry: this is not the rate of new firms. Not comparable with enterprise_birth_rate, which counts new enterprises in Europe. The year is the twelve months to March: 2023 compares March 2022 with March 2023.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the counties are compared on one definition. 1 counties with data in other periods have no value for 2016 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: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

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: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010 (Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 2016) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv

MLA 9

Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010, Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 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/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Census Bureau. 2025. Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 2016. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016.

Harvard

U.S. Census Bureau (2025) Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010, Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 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/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{census_counties_in_california_by_2016,
  author = {{U.S. Census Bureau}},
  title = {{Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010: Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 2016}},
  year = {2025},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016. Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023\_st\_cty.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Census Bureau
TI  - Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010: Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 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/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Business Dynamics Statistics: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds/tables/time-series/2023/bds2023_st_cty.csv. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
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/establishment-entry-rate/california-counties?period=2016" width="760" height="500" title="Counties in California by establishment entry rate, 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 California by establishment entry rate using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"establishment_entry_rate","level":"province","within":"California","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=establishment_entry_rate&level=province&within=California&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 establishment entry rate?

Sierra County, with 15.686% in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Which county has the lowest establishment entry rate?

Inyo County, with 6.969% 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: establishment entry rate, all covered industries, nation and states from 1978, counties from 2010. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 1 counties have no value for 2016 and are not ranked.