Companies in Vermont: 20,841 employers, four public companies and a nonprofit-heavy economy

This page is for anyone who needs to find, check or size up companies in Vermont: residents choosing a contractor, job seekers, suppliers and B2B sellers working out how much market there is in a small, rural state. It covers the counts by county, sector and legal form, the companies that file with the SEC, what the state publishes about employers, and how to look up a Vermont business.

How many businesses are in Vermont

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) for Vermont, all sectors, 2023:

That's 18,424 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 2,077 with 20 to 99 and 340 with 100 or more. CBP counts locations with paid employees, not companies; it excludes the self-employed and government, and measures employment in the pay period including March 12, 2023, which in Vermont is the height of ski season.

Chittenden County has 27.2% of the state's establishments and 34.4% of its private employees, and its workplaces are the largest, averaging 15.6 employees.

A nonprofit-heavy economy

CBP's state file splits establishments by legal form, and Vermont's split is unusual:

Shares are our calculation. Nonprofits employ almost as many Vermonters as all the state's C corporations, and twice as many as its 1,005 manufacturing establishments (29,246). Six of Vermont's 13 establishments with 1,000 or more employees are in health care or education. If you sell to large Vermont organizations, expect many of them to buy under nonprofit board and grant rules rather than corporate procurement.

What Vermont businesses do

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll. Construction has almost as many establishments as retail, but 95% of them have fewer than 20 employees. Food and drink makers are a real cluster for a state this size: 209 food manufacturers and 52 breweries.

What the state publishes about employers

Vermont's Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for fiscal 2025 includes the usual statistical table on employment, but with a note: data for the specific businesses that are the state's top employers "is not available, due to confidentiality regulations," so it shows employment by industry instead. On the Vermont Department of Labor's figures in that table, the state averaged 343,000 nonfarm jobs in 2024: 287,000 private and 56,000 government (16.4%). Health care and social assistance was the largest industry, with 52,000 jobs (15.0%), followed by retail trade with 36,000.

So there's no official list to quote. CBP gives the shape instead: Vermont has 13 establishments with 1,000 or more employees and 25 with 500 to 999, and three of the 13 are in health care and three in education.

Public companies headquartered in Vermont

Each figure is from the company's 10-K for 2025, with the headquarters from its cover page. The two banks' figures are net interest income plus noninterest income: $43.0 million plus $11.5 million for Union Bankshares and $40.9 million plus $7.9 million for Community Bancorp. EDGAR also lists Burlington addresses for Teucrium's commodity funds, which are exchange-traded trusts rather than operating companies, and a few very small filers.

How to look up a Vermont business

The Secretary of State search confirms that an entity exists and is active; for a contractor, also ask for proof of insurance and check any trade license with the Office of Professional Regulation.

Prospecting Vermont's food and drink makers

Illustrative example. The company, prices and results are fictional; the counts are from CBP 2023.

Green Mountain Fulfillment (greenmountainfulfill.example) packs and ships online orders for specialty food brands.

• Food manufacturers (NAICS 311) with 10 to 99 employees: 35 + 19 + 13 = 67.
• Beverage manufacturers (NAICS 312) with 10 to 99 employees: 9 + 9 + 7 = 25, for 92 in all.
• It assumes 40% sell direct to consumers online: about 37 brands.
• Winning 7 at an average of $30,000 a year in fees is $210,000.

The buyer is the owner or the operations lead, and the trigger is the fourth quarter, when gift orders swamp a small packing room. Finding which of the 92 sell online, and how much, is the research Bebop does for each company on a list.

Subject: Holiday orders at [Company]

Hi [first name],

Every December, Vermont food makers tell us the same thing: the online orders are great, and packing them pulls the whole team off production.

We store, pack and ship direct-to-consumer orders for Vermont food and drink brands from a warehouse in [town], with cold packing for cheese and next-day pickup. Could I send pricing based on last year's order volume?

[Your name], Green Mountain Fulfillment

Next step: for the state's builders and trades, see construction companies in Vermont.