Official statistics
How large is Florida's business population next to the other large U.S. states, how small are its businesses, and how are one-person businesses organized? The figures come from two Census Bureau series and are official statistics, not counts from our own dataset.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023; U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 · state files downloaded October 13, 2026 · Content last revised: October 13, 2026
County Business Patterns counts establishments, that is single physical locations, with at least one paid employee; Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses that have no paid employees and are subject to federal income tax, most of them self-employed people. Rank is the position among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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| State | With paid employees (CBP 2023) | Rank | Paid employees | Without paid employees (NES 2024) | Rank | Total | Share without employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 645,575 | 3 | 9,988,508 | 3,427,341 | 2 | 4,072,916 | 84.1% |
| Texas | 670,878 | 2 | 12,012,629 | 3,318,535 | 3 | 3,989,413 | 83.2% |
| California | 1,029,689 | 1 | 16,405,436 | 3,686,618 | 1 | 4,716,307 | 78.2% |
| New York | 541,313 | 4 | 8,767,091 | 2,097,883 | 4 | 2,639,196 | 79.5% |
| Georgia | 261,320 | 7 | 4,405,730 | 1,236,191 | 5 | 1,497,511 | 82.5% |
Florida has fewer establishments with paid employees than Texas (645,575 against 670,878) but more businesses without employees (3,427,341 against 3,318,535). Measured by the share of businesses without employees, Florida (84.1%) is ahead of all four other states in the table.
Annual payroll is what employers paid their employees during 2023; receipts are what businesses without employees took in during 2024. Averages are our own division of the published totals and say nothing about a typical business: a few large values pull an average up.
| State | Annual payroll (2023) | Payroll per paid employee | Receipts without employees (2024) | Receipts per business |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | $599.4 billion | $60,013 | $192.3 billion | $56,103 |
| Texas | $805.0 billion | $67,014 | $190.7 billion | $57,473 |
| California | $1,429.2 billion | $87,119 | $239.4 billion | $64,932 |
| New York | $751.6 billion | $85,730 | $139.5 billion | $66,501 |
| Georgia | $280.4 billion | $63,644 | $61.0 billion | $49,339 |
Number of Florida establishments with paid employees by the number of employees in the pay period including March 12, 2023. The classes add up to the state total of 645,575.
| Employees | Florida | Texas | California | New York | Georgia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 | 63.6% | 53.6% | 58.3% | 60.8% | 56.9% |
| 5 to 9 | 14.6% | 17.7% | 16.5% | 16.3% | 16.7% |
| 10 to 19 | 10.2% | 12.9% | 11.9% | 10.9% | 11.9% |
| 20 to 49 | 7.3% | 9.7% | 8.4% | 7.4% | 9.1% |
| 50 to 99 | 2.4% | 3.4% | 2.8% | 2.4% | 2.9% |
| 100 to 249 | 1.4% | 1.8% | 1.5% | 1.4% | 1.8% |
| 250 to 499 | 0.3% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| 500 to 999 | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 1,000 or more | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
In all five states, more than half of the employer establishments have fewer than 5 employees; Florida has the highest share of the five (63.6%). A list of Florida businesses with paid employees is therefore mostly a list of very small firms; establishments with 100 or more employees are 1.9% of the total (12,484).
Nonemployer Statistics splits businesses without paid employees by legal form of organization. Government and non-profit organizations are not included in the series.
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| State | Sole proprietorships | Partnerships | S-corporations | C-corporations and other corporate forms | Corporations together |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 2,805,508 | 223,946 | 299,573 | 98,314 | 11.6% |
| Texas | 2,991,698 | 192,335 | 101,487 | 33,015 | 4.1% |
| California | 3,181,970 | 234,573 | 198,035 | 72,040 | 7.3% |
| New York | 1,678,851 | 185,715 | 138,932 | 94,385 | 11.1% |
| Georgia | 1,108,669 | 61,627 | 57,145 | 8,750 | 5.3% |
Florida has 397,887 corporations without paid employees, 11.6% of its nonemployer businesses; in Texas the share is 4.1% and in Georgia 5.3%. For business lists this matters: a one-person corporation is normally on file with the state and can be found in Sunbiz, while a sole proprietor trading under his or her own name may not appear in any state register. How state records and Census counts relate is explained on the page Florida businesses by county.
Industry figures for Florida are on the page Florida businesses by industry. What we can compile for the other states is described on their pages: Texas, California, New York and Georgia.
Adding 645,575 establishments with paid employees (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023) and 3,427,341 businesses without paid employees (U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024) gives 4,072,916. Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranks 3rd by establishments with paid employees and 2nd by businesses without paid employees. California ranks first in both.
Yes, by both measures. 84.1% of the businesses counted here have no paid employees, and 63.6% of the establishments with paid employees had fewer than 5 employees in mid-March 2023. Only 12,484 establishments (1.9%) had 100 or more.
As an order of magnitude, yes: a business without paid employees is not in CBP, and NES counts only businesses without paid employees. But the series describe different years (2023 and 2024) and different units (CBP counts establishments, that is locations; NES counts businesses, mostly self-employed people filing taxes). A business that hired its first employee in 2024 can be missing from both or appear in both.
No. These are official statistics of the Census Bureau. Our own Florida database is active, but we hold no comparable dataset for the other states; see the data status.
docs/tools/state-compare-extract.mjs in the source of this website.Florida is our main market; Texas, California, New York and Georgia we compile on request. Tell us the industry, the area and the fields you need, and we reply with what we can deliver and when.