Companies in Atlanta: 163,103 businesses across 29 counties, the big employers and the headquarters

This page is for anyone who needs to find, size or check companies in Atlanta: people choosing a supplier or contractor, job seekers comparing employers, analysts, and B2B sellers working out which counties and industries to target. It covers where the region's businesses are and how big they are, what they do, who employs the most people, the biggest headquarters, and the public sources for finding and vetting any of them.

Where Atlanta's businesses are

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts every business location with paid employees. The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area (CBSA 12060) covers 29 counties. In 2023:

These eight counties have 81.2% of the metro's establishments; the other 21 counties share 30,649. Fulton, which includes downtown, Midtown, Buckhead and part of the airport, has 25.1% of establishments and 34.5% of jobs. Gwinnett has more establishments than Cobb but fewer employees, a sign of its many small firms, and Clayton, south of the airport, averages 19.7 employees per establishment against 13.5 in Gwinnett.

How big they are

That's 139,732 establishments with 1 to 19 employees (59.5% have fewer than five), 19,026 with 20 to 99 and 4,345 with 100 or more.

What Atlanta businesses do

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll and employees. Transportation and warehousing is the sector that sets Atlanta apart: 5,775 establishments employing 221,772 people, an average of 38 per location, and 21 of the metro's 177 establishments with 1,000 or more employees. Airlines, parcel carriers and warehouses are all counted here. For that market, see logistics companies in Atlanta; for software and IT, tech companies in Atlanta.

CBP counts establishments, not companies, covers private employers only, leaves out the self-employed and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023.

Atlanta's largest employers

The Metro Atlanta Chamber's economic research team surveys the region's largest employers every two years by full-time-equivalent headcount at all locations across the 29-county metro. Its 2025 survey, updated in March 2025, starts:

Adding UPS's two entries gives 27,158 people, which would rank it fourth. The Chamber says its survey excludes federal, state and local government and public school systems, though public universities, the CDC and MARTA appear further down its list. Our largest companies in Atlanta page ranks the headquarters by revenue instead.

The biggest companies headquartered in Atlanta

Ranked by revenue in each company's latest annual report on Form 10-K, among SEC-registered public companies whose 10-K cover names a principal executive office in the metro:

The Metro Atlanta Chamber's 2026 update counts 16 Georgia companies in the Fortune 500, 14 of them in metro Atlanta; Aflac (Columbus) and Mohawk Industries (Calhoun) are the two outside it. Delta employs more than 100,000 people worldwide, according to its 10-K, so the 42,090 in metro Atlanta are about two in five.

Finding and checking an Atlanta company

For the legal entity behind a business, the Georgia Secretary of State's Corporations Division keeps the state register of corporations and LLCs, with their registered agents and annual registrations. Check that the entity is active there, that any trade license is current with the state licensing board, and that the company has done comparable work for a business like yours.

Prospecting Atlanta companies

Atlanta rewards working by county and industry rather than by city limits. The warehouse market south and east of the airport is a good example of how CBP's county files can size a niche.

Illustrative example. The firm, prices and results are fictional; the establishment counts are from CBP's county data.

Peachtree Dock Services (peachtreedock.example) repairs and maintains loading-dock doors and levelers.

• CBP counts 174 warehousing and storage establishments (NAICS 493) in Fulton County, 64 in Henry and 48 in Clayton: 286 in the three counties around the airport.
• At least 150 of them have 20 or more employees, enough dock doors to need a maintenance contract.
• Winning 10% at $12,000 a year each is 15 accounts and $180,000 of recurring revenue.
• The buyer is the site's facilities or maintenance manager; at third-party logistics firms, the general manager signs.

Matching those establishment counts to named sites and managers is the slow part. Bebop can search for "warehouses in Fulton, Henry and Clayton counties with 20 to 249 employees" and explain why each fits.

Subject: Dock door downtime at [site]

Hi [first name],

At a building with [number] dock doors, one stuck leveler during peak season can back up a whole shift of trailers.

We maintain dock doors and levelers for warehouses around the airport, on a fixed quarterly schedule with same-day emergency repair. Would a free inspection of your doors before the holiday peak be useful?

[Your name], Peachtree Dock Services

Next step: turn these counts into named accounts with how to build a prospect list.