Companies in Minnesota: a headquarters state with 154,455 businesses

This page is for anyone who needs to find or understand Minnesota companies: job seekers, procurement teams looking for in-state suppliers, analysts, and B2B sellers building account lists. It covers the headquarters first, since they define the state's economy, then the employers, then the full market from Census data and the state records that let you check a business.

The biggest companies headquartered in Minnesota

The ten largest SEC-registered public companies whose latest 10-K names a Minnesota principal executive office, by revenue in that filing:

U.S. Bancorp's figure is total net revenue. Two companies with large Minnesota operations aren't on the list because their 10-Ks put the principal executive office elsewhere: Travelers ($48.83 billion) names New York, while noting it also maintains executive offices in St. Paul, and Medtronic ($36.36 billion) names Ireland, while its main operational offices are in the Minneapolis area. The full ranking of 25, with headcounts, is on our largest companies in Minnesota page.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development's (DEED) top-companies file lists 17 Minnesota companies on the 2025 Fortune 500. Three of them, Land O'Lakes, Securian Financial Group and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, aren't SEC-listed companies, so they don't appear in a ranking built from 10-Ks. The same file lists seven Minnesota companies on Forbes' 2025 list of the largest private companies, including Cargill, Mortenson and Andersen Corporation.

Minnesota's largest employers

DEED publishes Minnesota's Largest Employers, by Minnesota employees, from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal's October 2025 list (DEED file last updated March 2026). The top ten:

Five of the ten are health systems or health companies. The full list, and what it means for anyone selling to big Minnesota workforces, is on our largest employers in Minnesota page.

How many businesses are in Minnesota

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

In bands: 130,511 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 19,771 with 20 to 99 and 4,173 with 100 or more.

The ten largest counties by establishments, from the CBP county file:

Hennepin County has 26.2% of the state's establishments and 33.5% of its jobs. Olmsted's 28.6 employees per establishment is the highest of the ten; the Census Bureau flags its employment figure as moderately affected by the noise it adds to protect confidentiality.

A headquarters economy

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. Health care has the most establishments of any sector, unlike California and Florida, where professional services lead, and manufacturing sites average 48 employees. The 1,128 corporate, subsidiary and regional managing offices average 134 employees each and employ 5.4% of all CBP workers, compared with 2.4% in California and 1.8% in Florida. CBP counts locations rather than companies, excludes the self-employed and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023.

Finding and checking Minnesota companies

To vet a contractor, check its registration with the Secretary of State and its license with the Department of Labor and Industry, then ask for references from companies your size.

Prospecting Minnesota companies

With so many head offices, a lot of Minnesota buying is centralized: a supplier who wins at an Eden Prairie or St. Paul headquarters may serve that company's sites nationwide. Below the big headquarters, 19,771 establishments with 20 to 99 employees are run by owners and general managers who buy directly. And the climate creates purchases that other states don't have.

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

North Star Snow (northstarsnow.example) clears parking lots and walkways for businesses in Dakota County.

• Statewide establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 14,803 + 4,968 = 19,771.
• Dakota County has 7.1% of the state's establishments, so North Star estimates about 1,400 there.
• It assumes half control their own lots rather than leasing in a managed office park: about 700 accounts.
• It works the list in August and September, when contracts for the coming winter are signed.

Separating sites with their own lots from tenants in managed parks takes research on each. Bebop can search for "Dakota County businesses with 20 to 99 employees that own their building and parking lot" and explain why each fits.

Subject: [Company]'s lot this winter

Hi [first name],

Most Dakota County businesses sign their snow contracts by October, and the ones that wait end up at the back of the plow route after the first big storm.

We clear lots and walkways for businesses your size in Eagan, Burnsville and Apple Valley, with a set response time after each snowfall. Could I send a quote for this season based on your lot size?

[Your name], North Star Snow

Next step: build the list itself with how to build a prospect list.