Comparable baseline
Louisiana at a glance
| Population | 4,618,189 | July 1, 2025; -0.7% since 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Business applications | 7,317 | July 2026, seasonally adjusted |
| Trailing-12-month applications | 81,556 | 1,766.0 per 100,000 residents |
| High-propensity applications | 1,712 | 23.4% of July applications |
| Projected employer formations | 236 | Census four-quarter projection for July's cohort |
| Small businesses | 511,235 | SBA 2025 profile; underlying employer and nonemployer data are from 2022 |
| Small-business employment | 889,431 | 54.1% of private employment in 2022 |
| Employer establishments | 108,561 | 2023 County Business Patterns |
Application rankings cover the 50 states and use unrounded figures. Applications are qualifying EIN filings, not confirmed business openings. Measurement years differ because federal datasets are released on different schedules.
Applications have recovered from the 2024 dip
Louisiana recorded 7,317 seasonally adjusted business applications in July 2026, up 3.3% from June and 22.6% from July 2025. Across the 12 months ending in July, the state received 81,556 unadjusted applications, 22.4% more than in the preceding 12 months. That trailing-year growth ranked 16th among the states.
The five-year July sequence shows why “recovery” is more precise than a simple boom narrative. Louisiana recorded 6,571 applications in July 2022 and 7,012 in 2023 before falling to 5,392 in 2024. The count then rose to 5,969 in 2025 and 7,317 in 2026.
July 2026 was only 11.4% above July 2022, but 74.7% above July 2019. Recent momentum is strong because activity climbed back from the 2024 drop; the five-year endpoint comparison is much less dramatic.
Louisiana had 158.4 July applications per 100,000 residents, ranking 20th nationally. Its trailing-year rate was 1,766.0 per 100,000, ranking 18th. Both were above the 50-state medians.
The July 1, 2025 population estimate of 4,618,189 was 0.7% below the 2020 base, the third-largest decline among the states. The smaller denominator makes population-adjusted application activity stronger than the raw count alone suggests.
Louisiana combines two small-business extremes
The SBA’s 2025 profile reported 511,235 small businesses in Louisiana using primarily 2022 employer-firm and nonemployer components. Businesses without paid employees made up 84.2% of that total, the seventh-highest share among the states, while small employer firms provided 889,431 jobs, or 54.1% of private-sector employment, the ninth-highest state share.
The first share describes the composition of the business count; the second describes where private-sector employees work.
Of Louisiana’s July applications, 1,712 met Census high-propensity criteria, equal to 23.4% of the total and ranking 38th. Census projected 236 employer formations within four quarters from the July cohort. That is 3.23 projected formations per 100 applications, ranking 47th.
The application series captures qualifying EIN filings, while the projection is a model estimate rather than an observed survival or conversion rate. Louisiana’s strong filing recovery should not be translated directly into employer growth.
Louisiana’s existing employer economy also has a sharp industry specialization. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction employed 35,355 people in 2023 CBP, or 2.08% of covered private employment. That share was 5.25 times the 50-state share, even though health care was much larger by total jobs. The sector’s concentration is real; there is no evidence here that it drove current applications.
The employer map is unusually distributed
East Baton Rouge Parish was Louisiana’s largest employer center in 2023, with 244,574 covered private jobs, or 14.4% of the state total. Orleans and Jefferson parishes each accounted for about 10.4%. The top three combined for 35.3%.
The leading-parish share ranked 43rd, making Louisiana one of the more geographically distributed employer states. Baton Rouge and the two New Orleans-area parishes are important, but no one parish stands in for the statewide employer economy.
Official resources for Louisiana businesses
- Begin with the Louisiana Secretary of State’s startup page, which routes owners to geauxBIZ for entity filings, tax registration, and a tailored federal, state, and local license checklist.
- Use the Louisiana Department of Revenue business-registration guidance for LaTAP and applicable sales, withholding, income, use, and excise accounts. The department cautions against opening tax accounts a business does not need because registration can create filing obligations.
- Check the state’s licenses directory and the geauxBIZ checklist for activity-specific approvals.
- Review Louisiana Economic Development small-business programs for capacity, capital, growth, and regional assistance.
Local sales-tax registration, zoning, health, and operating requirements need separate confirmation.
Source and calculation note
BizFacts used the Census Business Formation Statistics revision available September 3, 2026. July counts and changes are seasonally adjusted; trailing-year totals are unadjusted sums from August 2025 through July 2026 compared with the preceding 12 months. Rates use the July 1, 2025 Census population estimate. Parish and sector employment use 2023 County Business Patterns; small-business figures use the SBA 2025 profile’s principally 2022 components. Rankings compare the 50 states using unrounded values.