Businesses in Oklahoma: 96,402 workplaces, the state's largest employers and 15 public headquarters

This page is for anyone who needs to find or size businesses in Oklahoma: suppliers and partners, job seekers, researchers and B2B sellers working the state. It covers the Census count of businesses by county and sector, the state's own largest employers list, the public companies headquartered in Oklahoma and the ones that just left, how to check an Oklahoma business, and a worked example for selling to tribal enterprises.

How many businesses are in Oklahoma

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

In bands: 82,650 establishments (85.7%) have 1 to 19 employees, 11,798 have 20 to 99 and 1,954 have 100 or more. The two big counties hold 46.1% of establishments; Rogers County, northeast of Tulsa, pays more on average than either. Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. CBP counts locations rather than companies and leaves out the self-employed and government, including tribal governments, so several names on the list below aren't in these figures.

Oklahoma's largest employers

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce publishes a list of employers with 1,000 or more people in the state, with 2023 employment estimates in ranges, built from D&B Hoovers, state employment data for late 2022 and company websites. The top 15:

The table keeps the department's own ranks, which don't always follow the ranges (Mercy Health, ranked 16th, is listed at 6,200 to 6,300). Hobby Lobby, Braum's and Love's Travel Stops (3,700 to 3,800) are private Oklahoma companies that don't publish results. Paycom, at 4,500 to 4,600, is the largest Oklahoma-based public company on the list. The list ranks 153 employers with 1,000 or more people.

Tribal nations stand out. The list has ten entries for the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Muscogee and Citizen Potawatomi nations and an Osage casino, from government and housing to gaming, health and other businesses, with 36,700 to 37,700 employees between them.

Public companies headquartered in Oklahoma

Ranked by revenue in each company's latest 10-K, with the head office from its cover page:

A blank employee cell means we didn't take a headcount from that filing. For BOK Financial and BancFirst, revenue is net interest income plus noninterest income. Williams reports total revenues of $11.95 billion; its 10-K cover also lists Houston addresses for two pipeline subsidiaries. Helmerich & Payne had about 6,200 employees in the US and 9,500 abroad. ONEOK reorganized under a new Oklahoma holding company in September 2026 and still gives Tulsa as its head office.

Three companies have moved out:

What Oklahoma businesses do

Energy pays the most but employs fewer people than its reputation suggests: mining, oil and gas has 2.3% of private jobs. Within it, oil and gas extraction (NAICS 211) has 809 establishments and 10,341 employees with average pay of $191,566, and support activities such as drilling and well services employ 20,762. Administrative and support services, which includes staffing agencies and call centers, has 15 of the state's 72 private workplaces with 1,000 or more employees. For the energy sector in detail, see oil and gas companies in Oklahoma.

How to check an Oklahoma business

Prospecting Oklahoma's tribal enterprises

Tribal nations run some of the largest and most varied organizations in the state: governments, health systems, casinos and resorts, and holding companies with retail, manufacturing and federal contracting arms. Each nation runs its own procurement and vendor registration, and gaming operations, health services and government departments often buy separately.

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

Red Dirt Learning (reddirtlearning.example) sells compliance and frontline training for casinos, hotels and clinics and wants Oklahoma's tribal enterprises.

• The state's list has 10 tribal entries with 36,700 to 37,700 employees; five are gaming, entertainment or other business arms.
• It starts with the gaming and hospitality arms, which employ at least 19,500 between them by the list's ranges, and treats each nation's health services as a second account.
• At $40 per employee a year for 6,000 trained staff across three enterprises, that's $240,000 a year.

It approaches each nation's HR and learning leaders through the vendor registration process, not cold calls to property managers, and times outreach to the start of each fiscal year. Mapping which arm of each nation buys training, and who leads HR there, is the research Bebop does for each account.

Subject: Frontline training across [Enterprise]'s properties

Hi [first name],

With [number] team members across casinos, hotels and travel plazas, keeping compliance and service training current is a year-round job for your team.

We run short, mobile training for gaming and hospitality staff, built around your own policies, with completion reports your compliance office can use. Could I send a sample course and the vendor information your procurement office will need?

[Your name], Red Dirt Learning

Next step: see how large organizations split their buying in enterprise account research.