Last Updated: February 16, 2024, 1:56 pm by TRUiC Team


US Business Formation Trends by State

We’ve compiled data on US business formation trends by state to help business owners make good decisions when starting and running a small business.

Ready to Start a Business? Visit our How to Start a Business guide to learn more.

Business Formation Trends by State - Skip Ahead: 

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Business Formation by State Over Time

The map below shows the number of business applications submitted in each state for the selected year. The darker the blue, the more applications submitted.

Business Formation Per Capita

To determine which states are the most popular for business formation, we've calculated per capita business formation for each state. It quickly becomes apparent that some states are attracting applicants from across the country.

States such as Wyoming and Delaware have historically been popular for new business formation, and you can read whether this popularity is justified in our article on Best State to Form an LLC? While other states such as Florida, Georgia, Utah or Texas have attractive tax incentives, which we cover in our article on Best States to Start a Business.

(Popularity for each state was calculated by dividing the number of business applications from that state by the number of adult population in that state.)

Top 10 States for Business Applications

Bottom 10 States for Business Applications

Most businesses in the US are started in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Georgia. We've included our most popular business idea guides for each state.

California

Texas

Florida

New York

Georgia

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