Companies in Nashville: 50,910 businesses, a health care headquarters cluster and the area's biggest employers

This page is for anyone sizing up the companies in Nashville: job seekers, people looking for a supplier or partner, analysts, and B2B sellers working out where in Middle Tennessee to spend their time. It covers who employs the most people, which public companies are based here, how many businesses there are and where, what they do, and how to check a Tennessee company before you deal with it.

Nashville's largest employers

The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County publishes a principal employers schedule in its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. The fiscal 2025 report (as of June 30, 2025) takes its counts from the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Business Journal and covers the whole metro:

The ten employ 177,936 people, 15.73% of total employment by the schedule's own measure, against 110,558 for the 2016 top ten. Community Health Systems, Asurion and Randstad have dropped out since 2016. Two things stand out: government and universities fill four of the top five places, and HCA is now the largest private employer by a wide margin. Nissan North America, whose US headquarters is in Franklin, is the only one of the ten whose count fell.

Public companies headquartered in the Nashville area

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

AllianceBernstein's figure is the net revenues of AllianceBernstein L.P., the operating partnership; the listed AllianceBernstein Holding owns units in it and reports its share of the partnership's income. Acadia ($3,312.8 million) edges Surgery Partners ($3,308.7 million). Cracker Barrel's latest 10-K, for the year to July 31, 2026, reports $3.32 billion, down from $3.48 billion a year earlier. Delek Logistics Partners ($1.01 billion), which Delek US consolidates, is left out to avoid counting the same revenue twice. Holley ($613.5 million) and Shoals Technologies of Portland, Tennessee ($475.3 million) are among the next in line. The Nashville Area Chamber counts five Fortune 500 headquarters in the region: HCA, Dollar General, Tractor Supply, Community Health Systems and Delek US.

Big employers without a local 10-K, such as Asurion, Bridgestone Americas and Nissan North America, are private or report through a foreign parent, so they don't appear in the ranking.

A health care headquarters cluster

Together they reported $106.92 billion, 50.3% of the top 20's $212.46 billion, and five of the eight give Brentwood or Franklin addresses. Health care and social assistance is also the metro's largest employer by sector, with 172,491 people (17.0% of the total). For the local provider market, see healthcare companies in Nashville.

How many businesses are in Nashville

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) for the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN Metro Area (CBSA 34980), all sectors, 2023:

By size, 41,859 establishments have 1 to 19 employees, 7,401 have 20 to 99 and 1,650 have 100 or more, including 71 with 1,000 or more. Nearly half (49.8%) have one to four employees. Davidson County workplaces average 23.8 employees and Williamson County's 17.2.

What Nashville businesses do

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll and employees. The music business is real but small in establishment terms: 479 musical groups and artists (NAICS 711130) across the metro with 2,848 employees, 354 of them in Davidson County, where average pay is $189,897. Head offices matter more for B2B sellers: 433 corporate and regional managing offices (NAICS 551114) employ 57,097 people. CBP counts locations with paid employees rather than companies, leaves out the self-employed and government, and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023.

Finding and checking a Nashville company

Before you sign with a local supplier, confirm the entity is active with the Secretary of State, check any trade license on Verify, and ask whether it is registered in the county where the work happens.

Prospecting Nashville's corporate offices

Head offices are a bigger market here than the sector table suggests: two of the top ten, AllianceBernstein and LKQ, give Nashville addresses on their 10-K covers, and 433 corporate and regional offices employ 57,097 people. Offices like these hire from out of state, which makes them good targets for relocation, recruiting, benefits and workplace services.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional; the counts are from CBP 2023.

Cumberland Relocation (cumberlandrelo.example) runs home-finding and spousal job support for transferred employees.

• Corporate and regional managing offices (NAICS 551114) with 50 or more employees: 85 in Davidson County (25 + 28 + 15 + 12 + 5) and 42 in Williamson (15 + 11 + 7 + 4 + 5), 127 in all.
• It assumes a third are hiring from outside Tennessee in a given year: about 42 offices.
• Winning 6 in the first year at an average of $40,000 in fees is $240,000.

The buyer is the head of talent acquisition or total rewards, and the trigger is a relocation announcement or a run of senior job postings. Finding which of the 127 offices is moving people in this quarter is the slow part; Bebop researches each account and suggests who to contact.

Subject: Moving [number] people to [Company]'s Brentwood office

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on the expansion in [city]. Relocating hires is usually where offer acceptance slips: families need a school, a house and often a second job before they say yes.

We handle home-finding and spousal career support for companies moving staff to Middle Tennessee, with one fixed fee per move. Would a one-page summary of what that looks like for your next ten hires be useful?

[Your name], Cumberland Relocation

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