Businesses in NYC: 235,767 employer locations, 2.1 million registered entities and the biggest headquarters

This page is for anyone who needs to size up or search the business population of New York City: suppliers and service firms looking for customers, people checking out a company before signing with it, job seekers, and B2B sellers planning territory by borough. It covers how many businesses there are and where, what they do, the biggest headquarters, and the free official records for finding and vetting any of them.

How many businesses are in New York City

Two official counts answer the question differently. The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts establishments: physical locations with at least one paid employee. The New York Department of State counts legal entities on file, whether or not they have staff, an office or any revenue.

Across the city there are 9.0 registered entities for every employer establishment. The state's count includes 884,741 domestic LLCs, 818,765 domestic business corporations and 149,047 not-for-profit corporations. The gap is holding companies, single-property LLCs, sole owners without staff and dormant filings, which is why a purchased "list of NYC businesses" with two million rows mostly isn't a list of buyers. The Department of State's county field is the county named in the filing, which the company can change and which may not be where it operates.

Manhattan has 39.8% of the city's employer establishments but 56.9% of its jobs: 24.7 employees per location, against about 12 in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

How big they are

That's 208,863 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 21,314 with 20 to 99 and 5,590 with 100 or more. Nearly two thirds (63.8%) have fewer than five people.

What New York City businesses do

These are the five boroughs' county figures added together; average pay is our calculation (payroll divided by employees). Two sectors explain most of the city's economy. Health care employs 23.2% of private-sector workers. Finance and insurance has only 4.1% of establishments but pays 27.4% of all wages. For industry detail, see the reports on finance companies in New York City and tech companies in New York City.

CBP covers private employers only. It leaves out government, the self-employed and businesses with no employees, and it counts a company with 40 branches 40 times. Employment is for the pay period including March 12, 2023.

The biggest companies headquartered in New York City

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

Banks are shown at net revenue, the figure they report as total revenue. StoneX and Galaxy Digital make the top ten because their revenue includes the full value of the commodities and digital assets they sell: StoneX's net operating revenues were $2.05 billion. Travelers, with $48.83 billion, still shows a St. Paul, Minnesota business address at the SEC, but its 10-K names 485 Lexington Avenue as its principal executive office. The full top 30, with headcounts, is on our largest companies in New York City page.

Who employs the most people

The City of New York had 287,422 full-time employees in fiscal 2025, 120,720 of them teachers and other pedagogical staff. The City Comptroller's annual financial report says that, other than the City itself, no single employer has more than 2% of the city's 4.8 million jobs, which is why it publishes no ranked list of principal employers. The largest employers in New York City page covers the public employers, the health systems and what the job data shows.

How to find and check a New York City business

To vet a supplier, work through it in order:

1. Confirm the legal entity is active in the Department of State data and that the name on the contract matches the filing.
2. If the work is in a licensed industry, find the license in the DCWP data and check its status, not just that it exists.
3. If you need minority- or women-owned spend credit, check the certified directory rather than the vendor's own claim.
4. Ask for two references from customers your size in the same borough.

Prospecting New York City businesses

Treat the boroughs as different markets. Manhattan establishments are larger and more often regional or headquarters offices, where purchases go through procurement or a facilities team. In Brooklyn and Queens, most of the 20-to-99 tier are owner-run firms where the owner or an office manager decides within a week or two.

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

Atlantic Ledger (atlanticledger.example), a bookkeeping firm in Downtown Brooklyn, wants Brooklyn businesses with 5 to 19 employees.

• Citywide, 35,509 + 23,045 = 58,554 establishments have 5 to 19 employees.
• Brooklyn has 26.4% of the city's establishments, so assuming the same size mix gives about 15,480 there.
• It filters the Department of State data to Kings County entities filed since 2023, because new firms are still choosing an accountant, then keeps those it can match to a storefront or office.
• At 300 contacts a month and a 1.5% conversion rate, it adds four or five clients a month.

Matching filings to real, staffed businesses is the slow part. Bebop can search for "Brooklyn businesses with 5 to 19 employees that opened in the last two years" and explain why each one fits.

Subject: Books for [Company] before tax season

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on [Company]'s second year. Around now, most owners we meet are doing the books at night and worrying about New York's quarterly sales tax filings.

We keep the books for about 60 Brooklyn businesses with 5 to 20 people, for a flat monthly fee, and file the sales tax returns too. Would a 15-minute call to see whether we'd save you time be useful?

[Your name], Atlantic Ledger

Next step: turn a borough into a working target list with how to build a prospect list.