Businesses in North Carolina: 258,169 workplaces across four regions, and the companies that lead them

This page is for anyone who needs North Carolina businesses: people looking for employers or suppliers, researchers, and B2B sellers who have to decide where in the state to spend their time. It covers the count, the regions and sectors, the headquarters in each region, the official places to check a business, and a worked example in the state's fastest-growing manufacturing niche.

How many businesses are in North Carolina

From the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP), which counts business locations with paid employees across all sectors:

In bands: 218,627 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 33,557 with 20 to 99 and 5,985 with 100 or more. A company with many branches counts once per location, the self-employed aren't included, and employment is for the pay period including March 12, 2023.

Where the businesses are

The top ten hold 53.3% of the state's establishments, so nearly half are spread across the other 90 counties. Durham has fewer establishments than its neighbors but the largest workplaces, at 27.7 employees each, while Buncombe (12.9) and New Hanover (13.9) run small. For city detail, see companies in Charlotte and companies in Raleigh.

What North Carolina businesses do

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. Construction is the second-largest sector by establishments, ahead of health care. The Census Bureau flags the finance and insurance employment figure as moderately affected by the noise it adds for confidentiality.

Three specialties stand out in the detailed codes. Banks and other depository institutions had 3,198 sites and 101,300 employees. Scientific research and development services had 848 establishments with 46,785 employees. And pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing had 78 plants with 24,370 employees, 40 of them with 50 or more people.

Top companies headquartered in North Carolina, by region

The 20 largest SEC-listed companies whose latest 10-K gives a North Carolina principal executive office, by revenue in that filing:

Bank of America's and Truist's figures are total revenue net of interest expense, First Citizens' is total revenue, and Duke Energy's is total operating revenues. Lowe's fiscal year ended January 30, 2026, Advance Auto Parts' January 3, 2026 and Ingles' September 27, 2025; the rest ended in December 2025. Lowe's reports 167,000 full-time and 109,000 part-time associates; Advance Auto Parts, 28,274 full-time and 25,733 part-time.

Thirteen of the 20 are in the Charlotte region, which is why most "top companies in North Carolina" lists read like a Charlotte list. Outside it, the Triangle and the Triad have their own headquarters, including Labcorp and Old Dominion, two large employers that sellers often miss. The Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina counts 11 Fortune 500 headquarters in the state, citing Fortune's 2026 list.

How to look up a North Carolina business

The Commerce Department's tool is the one to know: pick a county or the state and a quarter, and it lists the largest employers there from the reports employers file for unemployment insurance.

Prospecting North Carolina's life sciences plants

Big new plants generate years of purchases: equipment qualification, calibration, cleanroom services, staffing and maintenance. The Research Triangle Regional Partnership reported in October 2024 that Johnson & Johnson would invest more than $2 billion in a biologics manufacturing site in Wilson, with about 420 jobs, and its newsroom lists further biomanufacturing investments by Fujifilm Diosynth and Genentech in Holly Springs.

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

Piedmont Calibration (piedmontcal.example) calibrates laboratory and production instruments under pharmaceutical quality rules.

• Pharmaceutical manufacturing sites with 50 or more employees: 10 + 11 + 5 + 7 + 7 = 40.
• Scientific research and development sites with 20 or more: 84 + 42 + 33 + 23 + 6 + 8 = 196.
• It assumes 70% are within a two-hour drive of its Durham base: about 165 sites.
• Converting 8% in the first year would mean about 13 service contracts.

It targets quality assurance and metrology managers, who own calibration schedules, and times outreach for a plant's construction-to-qualification phase. Finding which of 165 sites are mid-build or newly validating takes research on each; Bebop can search for "pharmaceutical manufacturing sites in North Carolina that announced expansions since 2024" and explain why each fits.

Subject: Calibration for [site] before qualification

Hi [first name],

With [Company]'s [Holly Springs / Wilson / RTP] expansion moving toward qualification, calibration schedules usually become the bottleneck nobody budgeted for.

We calibrate lab and production instruments on site across the Triangle, with documentation formatted for your quality system. Could we quote the instruments on your first qualification list?

[Your name], Piedmont Calibration

Next step: see the state's factory base in manufacturing companies in North Carolina.