The US Has 226,729 Companies With 50 to 499 Employees

Key findings

• The US had 226,729 employer firms with 50 to 499 employees in 2022, 3.5% of all 6,395,635 employer firms.
• Those 226,729 mid-sized firms employed 27,473,934 people, 20.2% of US employer-firm employment.
• Only 21,041 US firms had 500 or more employees in 2022, yet they employed 54.1% of all workers at employer firms.
• 10,641 US firms had 1,000 or more employees in 2022.
• Health care and social assistance had more firms with 50 to 499 employees (38,651) than any other sector.
• California had 30,683 firms with 50 to 499 employees operating in the state, the most of any state, followed by Texas with 23,122.
• 89.4% of US employer firms (5,720,093) had fewer than 20 employees.

The mid-market is small in count and large in reach

Any outbound plan starts with a list, and the size of that list depends on which company sizes you sell to. The Census Bureau's Statistics of US Businesses (SUSB) gives the most complete official count. In 2022, the latest year available, the US had 6,395,635 firms with paid employees.

Most of them are very small. 5,720,093 firms, or 89.4%, had fewer than 20 employees. The band many B2B teams call the mid-market, 50 to 499 employees, held 226,729 firms. That is 3.5% of all employer firms, but they employed 27,473,934 people, about one in five workers at US employer firms.

At the top end, 21,041 firms had 500 or more employees and together employed 54.1% of the workforce at employer firms. Of those, 10,641 had at least 1,000 employees.

Where mid-sized firms are by industry

Health care and social assistance had the most firms in the 50 to 499 band, at 38,651. Accommodation and food services followed with 31,731, then manufacturing with 25,716. Professional, scientific and technical services (19,964), retail trade (19,679) and construction (19,662) were close behind.

For enterprise accounts, the picture changes. Management of companies and enterprises, the NAICS sector for holding companies and corporate head offices, had the most firms with 500 or more employees operating in it (7,373). Health care (4,359), administrative and support services (4,202) and manufacturing (4,177) came next.

Where they are by state

California had 30,683 firms with 50 to 499 employees operating in the state. Texas had 23,122, New York 16,016 and Florida 15,974. At the other end, Alaska had 593 and Wyoming 712.

The full state table in the data file covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia across every size band.

How to use these numbers

These counts work as a ceiling for total addressable market sizing. A team selling to US manufacturers with 50 to 499 employees is working with a universe of 25,716 firms. A team targeting firms with 1,000 or more employees has 10,641 possible accounts in total, across every industry.

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About the data

• Source: US Census Bureau, Statistics of US Businesses (SUSB) 2022, "U.S. & States, NAICS Sectors, Detailed Employment Sizes" file. 2022 is the latest SUSB release as of October 2026.
• Unit: a firm is a business organization under common ownership or control with paid employees. Size class is based on the firm's total US employment in the week of March 12, 2022.
• Bands: Census detailed size classes are combined into 1 to 19, 20 to 49, 50 to 99, 100 to 499, 500 to 999 and 1,000 or more. The 1 to 19 band uses the Census "<20" class, which includes firms that reported zero employees in March but paid employees at some point in the year.
• Sector and state counts: a firm is counted in every sector and every state in which it has an establishment, so sector and state counts add up to more than the US total. The firm's size class is always its national employment, not its employment in that sector or state.
• Limitations: SUSB excludes nonemployer businesses, government, and most agricultural production. Counts reflect 2022 and do not show changes since then.

Sources

• US Census Bureau, SUSB 2022 detailed sizes file: www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/susb/tables/2022/us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.txt
• US Census Bureau, SUSB 2022 annual data tables: census.gov/data/tables/2022/econ/susb/2022-susb-annual.html
• US Census Bureau, SUSB methodology: census.gov/programs-surveys/susb/technical-documentation/methodology.html