Businesses in Indiana: 155,692 locations, the biggest headquarters and how to look one up

This page is for anyone who needs to find, check or count businesses in Indiana: people vetting a supplier or contractor, job seekers, researchers, and B2B sellers sizing a territory. It covers how many businesses there are and how big, which industries dominate, the largest companies headquartered in the state, and the official places to look a business up.

How many businesses are in Indiana

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts business locations with paid employees. For Indiana in 2023:

That's 129,264 locations with 1 to 19 employees, 21,868 with 20 to 99 and 4,560 with 100 or more. Half (50.3%) have fewer than five.

What the count leaves out matters if you're comparing it with other figures. CBP counts establishments, not companies: a chain with 40 Indiana stores counts 40 times. It excludes the self-employed, businesses with no payroll, and government, and its employment is for the pay period including March 12, 2023. The number of entities registered with the Secretary of State is much larger, because it includes sole proprietors, holding companies and inactive firms.

For all jobs including government, the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted 3,190,325 covered jobs in Indiana in 2025: 2,790,648 private (87.5%), 272,588 in local government, 87,740 state and 39,348 federal. Government's 399,677 jobs are 12.5% of the total.

Indiana is a manufacturing state

Average pay is our calculation: payroll divided by employees. Manufacturing has only 5.1% of Indiana's establishments but 17.9% of its employees, and its average plant has 66 workers, against 18.8 for all businesses. By size, Indiana has 862 manufacturing plants with 50 to 99 employees, 697 with 100 to 249, 239 with 250 to 499, 122 with 500 to 999 and 49 with 1,000 or more. Transportation and warehousing, with 16 sites over 1,000, follows the factories. For sector detail, see the reports on Indiana manufacturing companies and Indiana trucking companies.

The biggest companies headquartered in Indiana

Ranked by revenue in each company's latest annual report on Form 10-K, using the headquarters on the filing's cover. OneMain, a consumer lender, is shown at net interest income plus other revenue, the same basis used for banks.

Headcounts are company-wide unless stated. Elevance's revenue exceeds the other nine combined ($170.2 billion), so any ranking of Indiana companies by revenue is mostly a ranking of what comes after it. Elanco Animal Health ($4.72 billion) and CNO Financial ($4.49 billion) come next.

Two former Indiana headquarters no longer file: Berry Global, based in Evansville, deregistered in May 2025 after its acquisition, and Hillenbrand, based in Batesville, delisted in February 2026. Private and nonprofit employers, which include many of the state's hospital systems and universities, don't file with the SEC.

Where Indiana's companies are

Indiana's headquarters are spread across the state rather than packed into one metro:

Elkhart's three are the core of the US recreational vehicle supply chain, and that cluster is about to change: LCI Industries' October 2026 proxy statement describes an agreement with Patrick Industries to combine their businesses, which together reported $8.07 billion in 2025 revenue.

How to look up an Indiana business

To vet a supplier, confirm the entity is registered and in good standing on INBiz, check any professional license through the PLA, and ask for references from clients your size. Some trade licenses are issued locally rather than by the state, so also check with the city or county building department where the work is.

Prospecting Indiana businesses

Who decides depends on size. At the 129,264 locations with fewer than 20 employees, the owner buys. In the 21,868 with 20 to 99, an office or operations manager handles most purchases. In Indiana's 1,107 manufacturing plants with 100 or more workers, plant managers, HR and safety leads control site spending, while purchases above a threshold go to corporate procurement, often outside the state.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional, to show the method.

Crossroads Industrial Staffing (crossroadsstaffing.example), based in Fort Wayne, places production and maintenance workers at mid-sized plants.

• Indiana plants with 100 to 499 employees: 697 + 239 = 936.
• It serves northern Indiana and assumes 40% of those plants are within reach: about 375.
• At an average of 12 temporary workers per client and a $9 hourly markup over 2,000 hours a year, each client is worth about $216,000 in gross margin.
• Winning 3% of the 375 (11 plants) adds about $2.4 million a year.

It times outreach to the plants' peaks: model-year changeovers, new contracts and announced expansions. Working out which of 375 plants is hiring this month is the slow part; Bebop can search for "northern Indiana manufacturers with 100 to 499 employees posting production jobs" and explain why each fits.

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