Comparable baseline
Texas at a glance
| Population | 31,709,821 | July 1, 2025; +8.5% since 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Business applications | 57,190 | July 2026, seasonally adjusted |
| Trailing-12-month applications | 587,453 | 1,852.6 per 100,000 residents |
| High-propensity applications | 13,343 | 23.3% of July applications |
| Projected employer formations | 3,134 | Census four-quarter projection for July's cohort |
| Small businesses | 3,517,343 | SBA 2025 profile; underlying employer and nonemployer data are from 2022 |
| Small-business employment | 5,108,008 | 44.4% of private employment in 2022 |
| Employer establishments | 670,878 | 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.
Texas is not merely a large business-application market. It remains a high-activity state after population adjustment. Census recorded 57,190 applications in July 2026, the third-highest count, equal to 180.4 applications per 100,000 residents and 13th among states.
Across the 12 months through July, Texas generated 587,453 applications, or 1,852.6 per 100,000 residents, ranking 12th. The raw scale is enormous, but the per-capita figures show that size alone does not account for Texas’s standing.
Growth is solid rather than nationally dominant
July applications were 25.5% above July 2025 and 15.8% above June. The trailing-year total increased 18.3% from the preceding period. Those growth measures ranked 18th and 21st, respectively—positive and above many states, but not close to the leaders.
Texas’s estimated population reached 31.71 million in July 2025, up 8.5% from the 2020 Census base and fourth among states for growth. July applications were 125.1% above the 25,409 recorded in July 2019. The partially overlapping comparisons show both a rapidly expanding population and far larger change in applications, but they do not establish how much one contributed to the other.
Applications are qualifying EIN filings rather than confirmed openings. Texas’s high-propensity share ranked 39th, while modeled formations per 100 applications ranked 20th.
The 3.5 million small-business count is mostly businesses without paid employees
The SBA reported 3,517,343 small businesses in Texas, the second-highest state total, using 2022 data. That count combined 493,818 small employer firms with 3,023,525 nonemployer businesses.
Nonemployers made up 86.0% of the published total, the second-highest share among states. The distinction prevents a common misreading: Texas did not have 3.5 million small employers in the source data; it had just under half a million employer firms plus more than 3 million businesses without paid employees.
Small firms employed 5,108,008 people, equal to 44.4% of private-sector workers and 40th among states. Texas ranks near the top in absolute small-business employment while remaining below the state median on the employment share.
The employer economy extends well beyond one county
Harris County held 2.18 million jobs, or 18.2% of employment covered by 2023 County Business Patterns. Dallas County accounted for 13.7%, and Tarrant County 7.3%. Together, the three held 39.2% of the state total.
The leading-county share ranked 36th among states. Houston and the Dallas–Fort Worth area are enormous employment centers, but the statewide economy is not dominated by a single county and substantial activity lies outside the three leaders.
Construction illustrates Texas’s combination of scale and modest specialization. The sector employed 791,588 people, or 6.6% of covered private workers—1.20 times the 50-state share. Nearly 792,000 jobs make construction economically important, while the location quotient is too modest to portray it as an extreme outlier or the state’s defining industry.
Official starting points for a Texas business
- Plan the process: The Governor’s startup guide covers structure, entity and assumed-name filing, taxes, permits, employer requirements, and assistance.
- File an entity: The Secretary of State links SOSDirect and guidance on formations, registered agents, and foreign registrations.
- Register tax permits: The Comptroller handles online registration for sales and use tax and other listed permits.
- Find licenses: The Texas Business Permit Office links the 2026–2027 guide. Texas has no single general state business license, but activity-specific and local requirements remain.
- Get advice: The Governor’s startup guide links the statewide Small Business Development Center directory.
Source and calculation note
Application figures use the Census July 2026 Business Formation Statistics release. Monthly values are seasonally adjusted; trailing-year totals sum unadjusted applications from August 2025 through July 2026 and compare them with the preceding August–July period. Rates use the July 1, 2025 population estimate. SBA measures use 2022 employer and nonemployer components. County and industry figures use 2023 County Business Patterns employment. BizFacts calculated changes, rates, regional medians, ratios, shares, location quotients, and 50-state ranks from sources retrieved September 3, 2026.