Businesses in Oregon: 567,974 registrations, 122,451 workplaces and the few big headquarters

Use this page to look up an Oregon business, size a market or find the companies that matter in one part of the state. It covers the state's business registry and how to search or download it, the Census count by county and industry, the public companies headquartered in Oregon with figures from their filings, local rules that affect who is registered where, and a worked example for a seller in Central Oregon.

How to look up a business in Oregon

The open data file is the one to know. It has 567,974 distinct registry numbers:

By principal place of business, Portland has 117,913, Bend 25,186, Salem 23,946, Eugene 22,384, Beaverton 15,761 and Hillsboro 10,991; 76,438 registrations list a principal place outside Oregon. An assumed business name is a trade name, not a separate company, so the registry overstates the number of firms. Use it for names and addresses, and the Census count below for market size.

Portland adds its own layer: a business operating in the city or Multnomah County must register with the Revenue Division within 60 days. For a contractor, check the CCB license before anything else; the board's own advice is that anyone can claim to be a contractor.

How many businesses are in Oregon

That is 106,184 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 13,990 with 20 to 99 and 2,277 with 100 or more. County Business Patterns covers all sectors, counts each location with a payroll separately (one company can run many), leaves out the self-employed, and measures employment in mid-March 2023. Oregon's workplaces are small: 13.9 employees on average against 19.0 in Massachusetts.

Where Oregon's businesses are

Average pay is our calculation from county payroll. The three Portland-area counties hold 46.1% of the state's establishments. Washington County pays the most because it holds Nike's headquarters and most of Oregon's chip industry. Deschutes has 9.2 employees per establishment, the lowest of the large counties: Bend is a town of small firms.

What Oregon's businesses do

Construction is unusually large for a state this size: 14,907 establishments, one in eight, nearly all small. Manufacturing has few establishments but big ones, averaging 34 employees, and the 35 semiconductor plants average 581.

The largest companies headquartered in Oregon

Revenue, headcount and headquarters city are from each company's latest 10-K. Greenbrier's 10-K for the year to August 2026, filed on 26 October, shows revenue down from $3.24 billion the year before. After Lattice, every other listed company headquartered in Oregon reported under $50 million.

Three notes on who isn't ranked. PacifiCorp, the Portland utility owned by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, reported $7.49 billion in 2025 operating revenue in its parent's combined 10-K, but has no listed shares; in February 2026 it agreed to sell its Washington operations to Portland General Electric for $1.9 billion in cash plus payment for specified assets. CorVel's latest 10-K gives Fort Worth, Texas as its headquarters. Radius Recycling of Portland was acquired and delisted in July 2025.

Prospecting Oregon businesses

Oregon has 83 establishments with 1,000 or more employees, so most sellers' market is the 13,990 with 20 to 99. That suits a regional approach: one county, one industry and a route a rep can actually drive.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional; the counts are from County Business Patterns.

Cascade Linen Works (cascadelinen.example), based in Redmond, rents and launders linens and uniforms for restaurants and lodging.

1. Accommodation and food service establishments (NAICS 72) in Deschutes County with 10 to 99 employees: 181 + 175 + 25 = 381.
2. It leaves out cafes and counter-service places that don't use linen, assumed at 40%: about 229.
3. It checks each name against the open data file for the principal place of business, which also shows the registered agent and whether a chain owns the site.
4. At a 5% conversion rate a season, that's 11 new accounts, enough to add a second route truck.

It calls owners and general managers before the summer season starts in April, and again before ski season in November, when properties set staffing and supply contracts. Finding which of 381 sites are full-service and who signs their supply contracts is the research Bebop does for each account.

Subject: Linen for [Business] before summer

Hi [first name],

Most Bend properties we talk to run short on linen at exactly the wrong time: the first full weekend of the season.

We deliver from Redmond twice a week, with par levels you set and change by text. Could I send a quote for [number] covers or rooms before your summer staffing is locked in?

[Your name], Cascade Linen Works

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