Companies in Portland, Oregon: the brands, the big employers and 72,943 businesses

This page is about Portland, Oregon and its metro area, which crosses the Columbia River into Clark County, Washington (Portland, Maine is a different market). It's for anyone who needs a working picture of the companies there: job seekers, people checking a contractor or supplier, analysts, and B2B sellers planning a territory.

The companies headquartered in Portland

These are the ten largest SEC-registered public companies whose latest annual report names a principal executive office in the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA metro area, ranked by revenue in that filing.

Nike's revenue is 2.7 times the other nine combined. Greenbrier filed its 2026 annual report on 26 October 2026. Two companies that still show Portland-area addresses at the SEC don't qualify: CorVel's latest 10-K gives Fort Worth, Texas as its principal executive office, and Datavault AI's gives Philadelphia. Radius Recycling, formerly Schnitzer Steel, delisted and deregistered in July 2025. The full ranking, with headcounts, is on our largest companies in Portland page.

Portland's largest employers

Greater Portland Inc. (GPI), the region's economic development partnership, publishes a list of major employers compiled by its staff in March 2026. It focuses on traded-sector employers and leaves out school systems, most retailers and government. The top ten by regional employees:

GPI says its estimates come from news outlets, CoStar, LinkedIn, company websites and its own research, may be from different dates, and may include some employees outside the region. The full list and what it shows about the region's workforce are on our largest employers in Portland page.

How many businesses are in Portland

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts business locations with paid employees. For the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area (CBSA 38900) in 2023:

That's 62,632 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 8,718 with 20 to 99 and 1,593 with 100 or more.

Washington County, home to Nike and Intel's Hillsboro campus, averages 18.8 employees per establishment, the most of the seven. CBP counts locations, not companies, excludes the self-employed and businesses with no payroll, and measures employment in the pay period including March 12.

Oregon's business registry shows the wider universe. Its Active Businesses dataset, which includes nonprofits and assumed business names as well as companies, had 117,877 active registrations with a principal place of business in the city of Portland when we queried it on 30 October 2026: 74,778 domestic LLCs, 21,548 assumed business names and 8,694 domestic business corporations among them.

What kinds of companies Portland has

Average pay is our calculation. Manufacturing pays well above the metro average, and its 3,084 establishments average 38 employees, the scale of chip, metals and equipment plants. The 465 corporate and regional head offices pay the highest average of any sector. For trades with their own reports, see construction companies in Portland and marketing agencies in Portland.

Checking a Portland-area company

Every business operating in Portland or Multnomah County must register with the Revenue Division within 60 days, even if its gross receipts are low enough to be exempt from the tax, and the division can issue a certificate of compliance. Ask a vendor for one if you need proof it's registered. For local business groups, the Portland Business Alliance is the regional chamber and Greater Portland Inc. publishes regional data.

Prospecting Portland companies

Size sets who buys: owners at the 62,632 establishments under 20 employees, office or operations managers from 20 to 99, and functional buyers at the 1,593 sites with 100 or more. The Washington side matters: Clark County has 12,552 establishments, almost as many as Clackamas, and its businesses register with Washington's Secretary of State, not Oregon's.

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

Burnside Books (burnsidebooks.example), a bookkeeping and payroll firm, wants newly formed Portland companies.

• Oregon's New Businesses Registered Last Month dataset lists 1,573 registrations with a principal place of business in Portland in September 2026, 1,172 of them domestic LLCs.
• Burnside assumes 30% of new LLCs will hire someone in their first year: about 350 a month that need payroll.
• Reaching them in their first 60 days, with a 3% conversion rate, gives about ten new clients a month.

The register gives names and addresses but not who's hiring. Bebop can search for "Portland companies formed in the last 90 days that are hiring their first employees" and say why each one fits.

Subject: First payroll for [Company]

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on registering [Company] with the state. If you're about to hire, the Portland and Multnomah County business tax registration and your first payroll filings land in the same few weeks.

We set up payroll and bookkeeping for new Portland companies in one afternoon, flat monthly fee, no long contract. Would a checklist of the city, county and state registrations you'll need be useful?

[Your name], Burnside Books

Next step: turn a list of new registrations into a working pipeline with how to build a prospect list.