Comparable baseline
New Jersey at a glance
| Population | 9,548,215 | July 1, 2025; +3.0% since 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Business applications | 15,826 | July 2026, seasonally adjusted |
| Trailing-12-month applications | 173,163 | 1,813.6 per 100,000 residents |
| High-propensity applications | 4,077 | 25.8% of July applications |
| Projected employer formations | 836 | Census four-quarter projection for July's cohort |
| Small businesses | 1,051,630 | SBA 2025 profile; underlying employer and nonemployer data are from 2022 |
| Small-business employment | 1,861,009 | 48.8% of private employment in 2022 |
| Employer establishments | 237,968 | 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.
New Jersey combines substantial business scale with a comparatively high application rate. The Census Bureau recorded 15,826 seasonally adjusted business applications in July 2026, 11th among states by count and 16th at 165.7 applications per 100,000 residents. That was the highest July rate in the nine-state Northeast.
The level is more notable than the latest growth. New Jersey’s trailing-year application rate ranked 15th nationally, but its trailing-year growth ranked 43rd. The employer geography is another clear distinction: no single county accounts for much more than one-tenth of statewide private employment.
The application base is large, but momentum is modest
New Jersey recorded 173,163 applications during the 12 months ending July 2026, equal to 1,813.6 per 100,000 residents. The total rose 11.9% from the preceding 12 months, below the Northeast median of 13.0% and slower than in 42 states.
July applications were 19.0% above July 2025 and 3.1% above June. The current July count was 72.8% above July 2019. The figures show continued growth from an already large base, but not an exceptional current growth rate.
More than one million published small businesses
The SBA’s 2025 profile reports 1,051,630 New Jersey small businesses using underlying 2022 data, tenth among states. The total includes 194,859 small employer firms and 856,771 nonemployer establishments. Nonemployers made up 81.5%, close to the typical state share.
Small employer firms provided 1,861,009 jobs, or 48.8% of private employment and rank 18. The million-business headline includes nonemployers and should not be read as one million storefronts, payroll employers, or current 2026 companies.
Employment is unusually dispersed across counties
New Jersey’s 2023 County Business Patterns data counted 237,968 employer establishments and 3,945,019 employees. Bergen County held 441,870 employees, 11.2% of the state total. Middlesex County was close behind with 434,143, or 11.0%, and Morris County held 301,249, or 7.6%.
The three counties together accounted for only 29.8% of measured employment, the third-lowest top-three concentration among states. The largest-county share was also third-lowest. “Dispersed” here means distributed across counties; it does not imply an even spread across municipalities or labor markets.
More than 70% of measured private employment lay outside Bergen, Middlesex, and Morris counties.
Health care and social assistance was the largest sector at 635,422 employees, followed by retail trade at 465,759 and administrative/support and waste-management services at 395,891. Each sector’s employment share was close to its 50-state counterpart. Their importance comes from absolute scale, not an unusual specialization ratio.
New Jersey’s official startup sequence
- Treasury’s Getting Registered page explains formation or authorization and the NJ-REG sequence by entity type.
- The Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services handles business filings, records, amendments, and annual reports.
- Business.NJ.gov’s Starter Kit provides activity-specific license and opening steps.
- The Division of Taxation publishes business-tax forms, filing, and payment guidance.
- The Business Action Center offers no-cost agency navigation and regulatory assistance.
Source and calculation note
July figures use the seasonally adjusted July 2026 BFS release. The trailing-year total sums unadjusted applications from August 2025 through July 2026 and compares them with the preceding 12 months. Rates use New Jersey’s July 1, 2025 population estimate; national ranks compare all 50 states and regional claims compare the nine Northeast states. Small-business figures use 2022 SBA profile components, and county/industry employment uses 2023 CBP. Sources were retrieved or checked September 3, 2026.