America’s New Business Hotspots

 

If America’s entrepreneurs are still testing their footing on the changeable ground of the new political landscape, they are at least setting out from a position of high ambition.

The last four years saw a record 21 million new businesses launched in America, at a rate more than 90% faster than pre-pandemic levels. During this period, the Small Business Administration (SBA) paid over $450 billion in loans and grants to small businesses. In 2023 alone, some 1.8 million of the 5.5 million new businesses launched with plans to hire workers.

Still, the promise of changes like the end of the penny, the shrinking of the government’s administrative force, the tariff war and the developing power of AI are all somewhat ambiguous. Nobody’s sure if these changes will affect businesses for better or worse, but just 54% of small business owners reckon the economy will improve in 2025.

So where is optimism strongest? To find out, we identified the states and counties with the highest rates of new business applications in 2024 and those where the rate has increased the fastest since 2022.

What We Did

We analyzed the latest available U.S. Census Bureau Business Formation data for all states (2024 figures) and 3,156 counties (2023) to identify the places with the fastest rate of new business applications. Then, we identified the number of new business applications relative to population in each area. Finally, we found the counties with the biggest growth in business applications by comparing the full 2023 data with 2022.

Key Findings

• Florida received 72 new business applications per hour in 2024 — the most of any state.
• However, Wyoming received 10,133 new business applications per 100,000 residents across the year, which is the highest rate per capita.
• West Virginia received just 855 new business applications per 100,000 residents in 2024, the lowest rate of any state.
• The county with the fastest growth in new business applications is Natrona County, Wyoming, where the number of applications rose by 124.3% from 2023-24.

A New Business Starts in California Every Minute of the Day

California received 43,265 new business applications per month — or 59 per hour — in 2024. This is equivalent to almost one new business per minute. But despite the impressive figure, we found that this is actually -6.9% fewer applications than in 2023.

California has more small businesses than any other state, employing seven million people. The state also grabs the lion’s share of America’s venture capital: in the first quarter of 2024, California start-ups netted 59.25% of all capital raised nationwide.

However, there is one state that saw more new business applications than California in 2024. In Florida, there were 52,860 monthly applications, or 72 per hour. This is -4.8% down on 2023 figures. Florida’s entrepreneurs can turn to the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Central Florida for advice — with over 19,000 consulting hours delivered in 2023.

“The SBDC was able to help our clients acquire more than $60 million of that capital that is so hard to find,” explains Associate Director Hal Thayer, “as well as win over $122 million of government contracts.”

 

Florida remains in the top three when new business applications are compared to local population figures, with 2,714 per 100,000 in 2024 (see table below). However, this is just half the rate of the Delaware (5,484) and only a little over a quarter of Wyoming’s figure (10,133).

Delaware’s 57,685 new businesses aren’t necessarily functioning in Delaware. It is the state where foreign businesses most commonly incorporate, and 66% of the Fortune 500 companies are legally based here.

Low corporate tax rates and shareholder and director privacy are among the advantages of incorporating in Delaware. And the Delaware Court of Chancery is known as “the nation’s preeminent forum” for business dispute resolution — the state is seen as having a steady hand when issues arise with locally incorporated businesses. Indeed, until 2023, Delaware regularly had the most new business incorporations per capita. That honor is now held by Wyoming.

The Wyoming County with ‘One New Business Per Person’

Next, we identified the U.S. counties with the most new businesses per 10,000 people in 2023 (the latest available figures) and the counties with the highest growth in new business applications between 2022 and 2023.

Wyoming counties comprise four of the five counties with the most applications per head. The state’s Sheridan County saw 9,361 applications per 10,000 residents in 2023, or nearly one application per person. This is because Wyoming has become the go-to state for out-of-state business incorporation.

Why Wyoming? The state does not charge corporate income tax and allows owners to hide their identity behind nominee officers and directors. Shareholder information can remain private. Even the makers of President Trump’s ‘Swiss-made’ watches are based in Wyoming — although it’s not easy to find them. A single Sheridan office building stands as the official address of some 120,000 businesses.

 

A Wyoming county, Natrona, is also the place with the fastest growth in applications, the total rising by 124.3% from 2022 to 2023. By comparison, Delaware — the former top choice for out-of-state businesses — has no counties in our top 15 (below).

“Delaware now has high franchise fees for issuing shares compared to other states like Wyoming,” says senior business consultant Gary Pryor. It is an annual fee that is expensive for small- and medium-sized companies. If you are a small business starting or growing, it is better to be in Wyoming because they do not have high franchise fees.

Problem-Solving America

Whatever the years ahead have in store for the economy, America’s thriving business scene is still feeding on the opportunities posed by recent events. “Entrepreneurs solve problems,” explains Stephanie Ferguson Melhorn, Senior Director of Workforce & International Labor Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, “and when America experienced huge problems in a concentrated time frame during the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs rose to the occasion. New economic needs and changing consumer preferences created more circumstances for new businesses to start.”

However, with the number of new business applications falling in 43 states in 2024, it remains to be seen how the next generation of entrepreneurs will step up.

Methodology & Sources

To identify America’s new business hotspots, we analyzed business application data for all states and 3,156 counties from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Formation dataset.

First, we identified the states with the fastest rate of new business applications every hour by pulling the total count of new business applications by state in 2024.

Next, we identified the number of new business applications relative to population in every state and county. We used the most recent data for states (2024) and counties (2023).

Finally, we isolated the counties with the biggest growth in business applications by comparing the full 2023 data with 2022.

This data analysis was completed in January 2025.