Comparable baseline
Wyoming at a glance
| Population | 588,753 | July 1, 2025; +1.9% since 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Business applications | 7,538 | July 2026, seasonally adjusted |
| Trailing-12-month applications | 85,212 | 14,473.3 per 100,000 residents |
| High-propensity applications | 1,714 | 22.7% of July applications |
| Projected employer formations | 233 | Census four-quarter projection for July's cohort |
| Small businesses | 81,924 | SBA 2025 profile; underlying employer and nonemployer data are from 2022 |
| Small-business employment | 135,636 | 65.2% of private employment in 2022 |
| Employer establishments | 23,865 | 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.
Wyoming’s business-application rate is an extreme outlier—and not a clean measure of resident entrepreneurship. The Census Bureau recorded 7,538 seasonally adjusted applications in July 2026, or 1,280.3 per 100,000 residents. That rate ranked first and was more than eight times the 50-state median, even though Wyoming ranked only 24th by raw count.
The numerator and denominator are not a matched resident cohort. Wyoming’s official quarterly charter files include entities with mailing addresses outside the state and many entities using shared registered-agent addresses. That proves state-law registration activity extends beyond locally based founders. It does not establish how many of the federal EIN applications came from nonresidents, because the charter and BFS records are separate systems.
The denominator cannot carry the usual interpretation
Wyoming recorded 85,212 applications during the 12 months ending July 2026, equal to 14,473.3 per 100,000 residents and again rank one. July applications were 14.9% above July 2025 and 353.5% above July 2019, the largest 2019 increase among states. The trailing-year total grew 20.2%, ranking 19th.
The Secretary of State’s charter statistics add essential context without allowing a causal allocation. They show domestic legal entities whose listed mailing addresses can be inside or outside Wyoming; they do not map one-for-one to BFS qualifying EIN applications. BizFacts cannot use those public aggregate records to subtract a nonresident share from the federal numerator.
Wyoming is therefore an exception to the usual per-capita interpretation. The rate is mathematically valid, but it should be read as applications associated with Wyoming divided by Wyoming’s resident population—not as the share of residents starting businesses.
Employer-oriented measures point away from a simple filing story
Census classified 1,714 July applications as high propensity, 22.7% of the total and rank 41. Its model projected 233 employer formations within four quarters, equal to 3.09 per 100 applications and rank 49.
The contrast is sharp: Wyoming ranked first for application intensity but near the bottom for the projected formations-to-applications ratio. The model is not an observed conversion or success rate, and it cannot diagnose why Wyoming is an outlier. It does reinforce the need to keep registration volume separate from local payroll-business creation.
Small firms have a genuinely large employment role
Wyoming’s observed operating-business data look different from its registration volume. The SBA’s 2025 profile reports 81,924 small businesses using 2022 components: 19,173 small employer firms and 62,751 nonemployer establishments. Small employer firms provided 135,636 jobs, or 65.2% of private employment—the second-highest state share.
Using the older business count with 2025 population yields about 139 published small businesses per 1,000 residents, also second among states. That is a cross-vintage contextual ratio and may carry some of the same denominator sensitivity; the employment share is the stronger evidence of small firms’ role.
The workplace economy is more geographically grounded
Wyoming’s 2023 County Business Patterns data counted 23,865 employer establishments and 212,203 employees. Laramie County held 37,182 employees, or 17.5%; Natrona County held 31,602, or 14.9%; and Teton County held 20,220, or 9.5%. Together, the three accounted for 41.9%, below the 50-state median top-three share.
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction employed 13,639 people. Though not the largest sector, its 6.4% state employment share was 16.19 times the 50-state share—the largest sector concentration among the states. CBP excludes most crop and animal production, so it remains incomplete for agriculture.
Wyoming’s official business starting points
- The Secretary of State’s Business and UCC Center handles entity filings and maintenance; its FAQs explain registered agents, foreign authority, and annual reports.
- The Department of Revenue routes applicable sales and use tax matters through its Excise Tax Division.
- The Wyoming Business Council’s startup resources route state, industry, and local permit questions.
- The Wyoming SBDC provides confidential, no-cost advising across the state.
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. Per-capita rates use the July 1, 2025 resident population estimate; ranks compare 50 states using unrounded values. The Secretary of State charter files are cited only as separate evidence about registration geography, not to adjust BFS. Small-business measures use 2022 SBA profile components; county and industry employment uses 2023 CBP. Sources were retrieved or checked September 3, 2026.