US Counties With the Lowest Business Establishments

3,142 US counties ranked by business establishments, from lowest to highest. First are Kalawao County, HI (0.00), King County, TX (0.00) and Elliott County, KY (4.50). The middle one of the 3,142 has 20.14.

What this measures

Business locations with paid employees in March, from the Census Bureau's list of businesses. Each location counts once, so a chain's stores count separately. Source: Census Business Dynamics Statistics.

This is a count, so it is ranked per 1,000 residents. Ranked by the raw total, it would just list the biggest counties.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

The 100 lowest counties

Every state, lowest first

Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.

More on business establishments

• US Counties With the Highest Business Establishments
• Business establishments by US county: map by year and what it goes with

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.