Companies in Kansas City: the headquarters, the big employers and 55,104 businesses in two states

This page is for anyone building a working list of Kansas City companies: job seekers comparing employers, buyers looking for a local supplier, analysts sizing the market, and B2B sellers deciding where to prospect. It covers the public headquarters first, then the region's biggest employers, then every business location the Census Bureau counts, and ends with how to check a company and how to approach the ones that fit.

A market on both sides of State Line Road

The Kansas City, MO-KS Metro Area (CBSA 28140) has 14 counties in two states. The eight largest hold 96% of its business establishments:

Johnson County, home to Overland Park, Olathe, Leawood and Lenexa, has 787 more business locations than Jackson County, which contains most of Kansas City, Missouri. Jackson County still has more jobs, and Wyandotte County's establishments are the largest on average (25.2 employees each), a sign of its plants, rail yards and hospital campus. For a seller, this means two secretaries of state, two sets of state licenses and two chambers of commerce for one metro.

The public companies headquartered in Kansas City

These are the largest SEC-registered public companies whose latest annual report (Form 10-K) gives a principal executive office in the metro, ranked by the revenue in that filing. Bank figures are total revenue: net interest income plus noninterest income.

Four of the ten are on the Kansas side, and ten of the 17 listed companies we confirmed are. Two details explain why this list differs from older ones. First Busey now gives 11440 Tomahawk Creek Parkway in Leawood as its principal executive office, after completing its acquisition of CrossFirst Bankshares on 1 March 2025; its bank, Busey Bank, is still headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. Garmin's US operating company is in Olathe, and OneKC counts it among the region's largest employers, but Garmin Ltd.'s 10-K names Schaffhausen, Switzerland as its principal executive office, so it isn't ranked here. The full list, with headcounts and the companies that left, is on our page on the largest companies in Kansas City.

Private companies don't publish revenue and aren't ranked. Several large ones appear in OneKC's employer list as headquarters, including Hallmark Cards, Burns & McDonnell and Black & Veatch.

Who employs the most people

OneKC, the Kansas City Area Development Council's site, publishes the region's major employers in size bands rather than exact counts. Its top band, more than 10,000 regional employees, is entirely public sector and health care: the federal government, the State of Kansas, the University of Kansas Health System, the VA medical centers, the Internal Revenue Service, Fort Leavenworth and Whiteman Air Force Base. The 5,000 to 9,999 band adds the first companies: Amazon, Ford Motor Company, Garmin, HCA Midwest Health and the Honeywell-managed Kansas City National Security Campus, alongside Saint Luke's, Children's Mercy and University Health.

OneKC's region reaches beyond the metro (it includes Topeka and Columbia employers), so treat it as a regional guide. The ranked list, county-level counts and what they mean for sellers are on our page on the largest employers in Kansas City.

How many businesses are in Kansas City

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

That's 45,806 locations with 1 to 19 employees, 7,757 with 20 to 99 and 1,541 with 100 or more. More than half (53.5%) have fewer than five people.

CBP counts establishments, not companies: a bank with 40 branches counts 40 times. It leaves out the self-employed and businesses with no payroll, and employment is for the pay period including March 12, 2023. These figures cover all industries (the Census "total for all sectors" code).

What kinds of companies Kansas City has

The same 2023 data by sector, for the ten largest sectors by employment plus corporate offices:

Average pay is our calculation: annual payroll divided by employees. The 440 management offices (corporate, subsidiary and regional headquarters) pay the most of any sector. Manufacturing averages 54.6 employees per establishment, and four manufacturing sites and six transportation sites have 1,000 or more employees each, which fits a metro built on auto assembly, rail and distribution. For sector deep dives, see the reports on Kansas City trucking companies and Kansas City construction companies.

How to check a Kansas City company

Which records you search depends on which side of the line the company is registered.

A company formed in one state and working in the other usually registers in both, so if you're vetting a supplier, search both states before you conclude it isn't registered. Then check any license the work needs and ask for references from clients your size.

Prospecting Kansas City companies

Buying follows size. At the 45,806 locations with fewer than 20 employees, the owner decides. Between 20 and 99, an office or operations manager runs most purchases and the owner approves large ones. Above 100, buying splits by function, and the 440 management offices make decisions for sites across the region and beyond.

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

Crossline Payroll (crosslinepayroll.example), a payroll provider in Overland Park, wants firms with 20 to 99 employees in the two core counties.

• Metro establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 5,811 + 1,946 = 7,757.
• Johnson and Jackson counties hold 67.5% of all establishments, so Crossline estimates about 5,240 in its target size there.
• It assumes 40% are branches of larger companies that run payroll centrally, leaving about 3,140 independent firms.
• Winning 1% a year means 31 new clients, enough to justify one full-time seller.

Its angle is the state line: firms with staff living in both states deal with two state withholding regimes, and that's where a local provider earns its fee. Sorting branches from independent firms is the slow part; Bebop can search for "independent Johnson County and Jackson County companies with 20 to 99 employees" and explain why each one fits.

Subject: Payroll for [Company]'s Kansas and Missouri staff

Hi [first name],

With people on both sides of State Line Road, [Company] is filing withholding in two states every payroll. That's usually where small payroll errors start.

We run payroll for 60 Kansas City firms between 20 and 100 people, most with staff in both states. Would a 15-minute review of your last quarter's filings be useful?

[Your name], Crossline Payroll

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