The short version
2026 editionKey takeaways
Each takeaway links to its canonical data row. Reported figures belong to their cited producer; modeled results are labeled as calculations.
- All industries: business applications: 531,728 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Projected formations within four quarters: publisher-projected employer formations: 28,501 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- All industries: July-to-August change in applications: -7.77% (August 2026 with July comparison; seasonally adjusted).Workspace369 calculation
- Projected formations within four quarters: July-to-August change in projected cohort formations: -4.55% (August 2026 with July comparison; seasonally adjusted).Workspace369 calculation
- California: business applications: 55,619 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Texas: business applications: 48,692 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Florida: business applications: 61,380 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- New York: business applications: 26,762 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Illinois: business applications: 16,559 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Georgia: business applications: 23,383 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Professional services: business applications: 80,691 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
- Information: business applications: 13,180 (August 2026 application cohort; seasonally adjusted).U.S. Census Bureau
How many applications and projected employer formations were reported?
Census separately reports applications and projected formations from the application cohort. A projected employer formation is not a business that necessarily opened in the reported month.
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| Measure | July 2026 | August 2026 | Month-over-month change |
|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 576,512Administrative application count | 531,728Administrative application count | -7.77%Calculated change in source series |
| Projected formations within four quarters | 29,860Publisher projection | 28,501Publisher projection | -4.55%Calculated change in source series |
Seasonal adjustment is not population normalization. State and national series may not add exactly. Industry detail is national; the page does not claim a state-by-industry cross-tabulation.
Primary sources: U.S. Census Bureau — September 11, 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau — checked September 13, 2026
How many business applications were reported by state?
These are seasonally adjusted application counts for the same two months. Levels show the scale of applications; the calculated change compares each group with its own preceding month.
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| state | July 2026 | August 2026 | Month-over-month change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 7,694Administrative application count | 6,206Administrative application count | -19.34%Calculated change in source series |
| Alaska | 1,371Administrative application count | 1,413Administrative application count | 3.06%Calculated change in source series |
| Arizona | 14,003Administrative application count | 12,399Administrative application count | -11.45%Calculated change in source series |
| Arkansas | 5,032Administrative application count | 3,813Administrative application count | -24.22%Calculated change in source series |
| California | 60,996Administrative application count | 55,619Administrative application count | -8.82%Calculated change in source series |
| Colorado | 17,197Administrative application count | 15,602Administrative application count | -9.27%Calculated change in source series |
| Connecticut | 5,025Administrative application count | 4,916Administrative application count | -2.17%Calculated change in source series |
| Delaware | 5,292Administrative application count | 4,985Administrative application count | -5.8%Calculated change in source series |
| District of Columbia | 1,414Administrative application count | 1,243Administrative application count | -12.09%Calculated change in source series |
| Florida | 65,129Administrative application count | 61,380Administrative application count | -5.76%Calculated change in source series |
| Georgia | 25,968Administrative application count | 23,383Administrative application count | -9.95%Calculated change in source series |
| Hawaii | 1,472Administrative application count | 1,450Administrative application count | -1.49%Calculated change in source series |
| Idaho | 3,460Administrative application count | 3,431Administrative application count | -0.84%Calculated change in source series |
| Illinois | 18,268Administrative application count | 16,559Administrative application count | -9.36%Calculated change in source series |
| Indiana | 10,642Administrative application count | 8,363Administrative application count | -21.42%Calculated change in source series |
| Iowa | 3,330Administrative application count | 3,337Administrative application count | 0.21%Calculated change in source series |
| Kansas | 4,430Administrative application count | 3,941Administrative application count | -11.04%Calculated change in source series |
| Kentucky | 7,083Administrative application count | 6,751Administrative application count | -4.69%Calculated change in source series |
| Louisiana | 7,263Administrative application count | 6,793Administrative application count | -6.47%Calculated change in source series |
| Maine | 1,453Administrative application count | 1,538Administrative application count | 5.85%Calculated change in source series |
| Maryland | 9,098Administrative application count | 8,922Administrative application count | -1.93%Calculated change in source series |
| Massachusetts | 7,506Administrative application count | 7,596Administrative application count | 1.2%Calculated change in source series |
| Michigan | 16,547Administrative application count | 14,883Administrative application count | -10.06%Calculated change in source series |
| Minnesota | 6,690Administrative application count | 8,078Administrative application count | 20.75%Calculated change in source series |
| Mississippi | 6,911Administrative application count | 5,561Administrative application count | -19.53%Calculated change in source series |
| Missouri | 12,170Administrative application count | 11,239Administrative application count | -7.65%Calculated change in source series |
| Montana | 2,734Administrative application count | 2,897Administrative application count | 5.96%Calculated change in source series |
| Nebraska | 2,055Administrative application count | 1,995Administrative application count | -2.92%Calculated change in source series |
| Nevada | 6,182Administrative application count | 5,757Administrative application count | -6.87%Calculated change in source series |
| New Hampshire | 1,903Administrative application count | 1,797Administrative application count | -5.57%Calculated change in source series |
| New Jersey | 15,850Administrative application count | 15,873Administrative application count | 0.15%Calculated change in source series |
| New Mexico | 3,434Administrative application count | 3,901Administrative application count | 13.6%Calculated change in source series |
| New York | 31,068Administrative application count | 26,762Administrative application count | -13.86%Calculated change in source series |
| North Carolina | 17,657Administrative application count | 16,692Administrative application count | -5.47%Calculated change in source series |
| North Dakota | 868Administrative application count | 906Administrative application count | 4.38%Calculated change in source series |
| Ohio | 16,115Administrative application count | 14,822Administrative application count | -8.02%Calculated change in source series |
| Oklahoma | 6,805Administrative application count | 5,318Administrative application count | -21.85%Calculated change in source series |
| Oregon | 5,725Administrative application count | 5,500Administrative application count | -3.93%Calculated change in source series |
| Pennsylvania | 13,943Administrative application count | 14,285Administrative application count | 2.45%Calculated change in source series |
| Rhode Island | 1,064Administrative application count | 1,114Administrative application count | 4.7%Calculated change in source series |
| South Carolina | 9,537Administrative application count | 8,406Administrative application count | -11.86%Calculated change in source series |
| South Dakota | 1,234Administrative application count | 1,270Administrative application count | 2.92%Calculated change in source series |
| Tennessee | 11,061Administrative application count | 9,613Administrative application count | -13.09%Calculated change in source series |
| Texas | 55,981Administrative application count | 48,692Administrative application count | -13.02%Calculated change in source series |
| Utah | 7,683Administrative application count | 7,682Administrative application count | -0.01%Calculated change in source series |
| Vermont | 736Administrative application count | 783Administrative application count | 6.39%Calculated change in source series |
| Virginia | 12,795Administrative application count | 13,103Administrative application count | 2.41%Calculated change in source series |
| Washington | 9,837Administrative application count | 9,874Administrative application count | 0.38%Calculated change in source series |
| West Virginia | 1,654Administrative application count | 1,734Administrative application count | 4.84%Calculated change in source series |
| Wisconsin | 7,629Administrative application count | 6,380Administrative application count | -16.37%Calculated change in source series |
| Wyoming | 7,518Administrative application count | 7,171Administrative application count | -4.62%Calculated change in source series |
Seasonal adjustment is not population normalization. State and national series may not add exactly. Industry detail is national; the page does not claim a state-by-industry cross-tabulation.
Primary sources: U.S. Census Bureau — September 11, 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau — checked September 13, 2026
How many business applications were reported by industry?
These are seasonally adjusted application counts for the same two months. Levels show the scale of applications; the calculated change compares each group with its own preceding month.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns →
| industry | July 2026 | August 2026 | Month-over-month change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 3,958Administrative application count | 3,859Administrative application count | -2.5%Calculated change in source series |
| Mining | 537Administrative application count | 559Administrative application count | 4.1%Calculated change in source series |
| Utilities | 565Administrative application count | 525Administrative application count | -7.08%Calculated change in source series |
| Construction | 48,801Administrative application count | 48,120Administrative application count | -1.4%Calculated change in source series |
| Manufacturing | 7,875Administrative application count | 7,910Administrative application count | 0.44%Calculated change in source series |
| Wholesale trade | 9,740Administrative application count | 9,998Administrative application count | 2.65%Calculated change in source series |
| Retail trade | 140,604Administrative application count | 104,087Administrative application count | -25.97%Calculated change in source series |
| Transportation and warehousing | 34,947Administrative application count | 35,175Administrative application count | 0.65%Calculated change in source series |
| Information | 13,136Administrative application count | 13,180Administrative application count | 0.33%Calculated change in source series |
| Finance and insurance | 20,222Administrative application count | 20,137Administrative application count | -0.42%Calculated change in source series |
| Real estate | 26,150Administrative application count | 23,670Administrative application count | -9.48%Calculated change in source series |
| Professional services | 81,008Administrative application count | 80,691Administrative application count | -0.39%Calculated change in source series |
| Management of companies | 6,784Administrative application count | 6,853Administrative application count | 1.02%Calculated change in source series |
| Administrative and support | 37,488Administrative application count | 37,796Administrative application count | 0.82%Calculated change in source series |
| Educational services | 8,550Administrative application count | 8,657Administrative application count | 1.25%Calculated change in source series |
| Health care and social assistance | 33,813Administrative application count | 32,522Administrative application count | -3.82%Calculated change in source series |
| Arts and entertainment | 15,037Administrative application count | 15,191Administrative application count | 1.02%Calculated change in source series |
| Accommodation and food services | 30,094Administrative application count | 26,892Administrative application count | -10.64%Calculated change in source series |
| Other services | 44,301Administrative application count | 43,221Administrative application count | -2.44%Calculated change in source series |
| No NAICS assigned | 12,902Administrative application count | 12,687Administrative application count | -1.67%Calculated change in source series |
Seasonal adjustment is not population normalization. State and national series may not add exactly. Industry detail is national; the page does not claim a state-by-industry cross-tabulation.
Primary sources: U.S. Census Bureau — September 11, 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau — checked September 13, 2026
Can applications be treated as business births or a conversion rate?
No. Applications occur earlier in the formation process. The projection follows a cohort over a future horizon, so dividing unrelated births and applications from one month would mix populations.
This edition does not publish an actual-startup count, a conversion-rate forecast or a market-size estimate based on assumed software spending.
Primary source: U.S. Census Bureau — September 11, 2026
Are historical application estimates fixed forever?
No. Seasonal factors, classifications and source revisions can change previously published figures. A saved download and source hash identify the edition used for this comparison.
The current release follows the January 2026 revision and NAICS transition. This report does not splice unreconciled historical vintages into a long-run trend.
How this report was built
Methodology and limitations
- We selected sa=A, year=2026 rows from the official monthly CSV, keeping July and August columns. State rows cover the fifty states and District of Columbia; industry rows cover national applications. Regional totals and Puerto Rico are not added to the U.S. comparison.
- The national projected-formation row uses BF_PBF4Q. Its forward-looking character is explicitly retained in the downloadable evidence_type field, claim and observation period.
- Workspace369 calculates month-over-month percentage change from the displayed source levels and rounds to two decimals. This can differ in displayed precision from Census’s one-decimal release headline.
- Missing, suppressed or unavailable values are never converted to zero. The import rejects nonnumeric cells for editorial review instead of silently generating a percentage.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- An EIN-related business application is not evidence of an operating employer, revenue or a new customer. Projections describe expected outcomes from an application cohort.
- The comparison is not adjusted for state population, industry size or the number of existing firms. Absolute counts are not entrepreneurial propensity rates.
- Revisions and classification changes constrain comparisons across releases. No causal explanation for monthly movements is established here.
Freshness and corrections
Maintained by the Workspace369 editorial team. Review monthly with Census BFS releases and document historical revisions. The edition date changes only when the evidence or content is substantively reviewed; it does not change the underlying observation period.
First edition: . Data extraction, source attribution and arithmetic checked for this edition. No independent peer review is claimed.
Found an error or a newer primary release? Send a correction with the source and affected statistic. Confirmed corrections should be recorded in the revision history before republishing.
Primary sources and provenance
Every reported numeric cell links directly to its producer. The downloads include exact table or workbook locators, observation periods, access dates, formulas and input references.
- U.S. Census BureauMonthly Business Formation Statistics data file ↗Published September 11, 2026. Accessed September 13, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
Source file fingerprint (SHA-256)
f38c4ccdd4cd5bc9a97711f9c3f36de2bab2f4c6b0eb87c2b4df1316edb06adf - U.S. Census BureauAugust 2026 Business Formation Statistics release ↗Published September 11, 2026. Accessed September 13, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
- U.S. Census BureauBFS monthly data dictionary ↗Publication date not recorded; see the original source. Accessed September 13, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
Made to be checked, then cited
How to cite this report
For a source-reported statistic, credit the original publisher and link to the exact row here when using our compilation. For a modeled result, cite Workspace369 and include the assumptions. Linking to this page does not make us the original producer of third-party data.
Workspace369. (2026-09-13). New Business Formation Statistics by State and Industry. https://workspace369.com/research/new-business-formation-statistics/. Primary sources and observation periods as listed in the report.