How Many Small Businesses are there in New Jersey?

Author: Jason Coles

Updated On:

Updated On:

New Jersey as a state is typically associated with vacation, relaxation, lovely beaches, fantastic scenery, and of course, the Sopranos, which attracts an abundance of tourism every year.

However, it isn’t just tourism that is increasingly becoming more popular within the state, but also people deciding to call New Jersey their new place of work or setting up a new business. NJ offers many pro-business incentives and a quality of life that is unmatched by most other states, so it is pretty easy to understand why thousands of people move to the state annually.

The Garden State has always been considered a huge contributor to the United States’ huge economy and it is continuously strengthening at an exponential rate, which is incredible when you consider the reasonably small size of the state.

Over the past several years, New Jersey has been recognized as an outstanding place for business (large or small), and this is due to the government’s pro-business approach, a consistently growing state economy, brilliant education system, seriously close proximity to large consumer markets (New York), and a lifestyle you, your business, and your employees’ desire, and deserve.

Number of Small Businesses in New Jersey

So, how many small businesses are there in New Jersey? There are 908,209 small businesses in the state, according to the latest figures (2020) from the SBA.

It is not just Americans and New Jerseyans starting small businesses in New Jersey; the state also attracts a massive amount of foreign entrepreneurs and investors. There are 136,186 immigrant entrepreneurs in New Jersey that account for 33% of all self-employed New Jersey residents.

The following bar graph shows the number of small businesses in New Jersey in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

How many small businesses are there in New Jersey

Of the 908,209 small businesses in New Jersey in 2020, there is a wide array of different enterprises from small, one-person sole proprietorships or LLCs to much larger businesses with several hundred employees. If you want to join the 908,000-plus small businesses in New Jersey, it is fairly easy to register a business in New Jersey.

To be a small business in New Jersey, you have to qualify as one. So, to operate as a small business you must have a company with less than 500 employees.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the number of small businesses in New Jersey by looking at the top industries, business owners, employees, and more!

Small Businesses in New Jersey 2020 overview

  • Small businesses equate to over 99.6% of all businesses in New Jersey.
  • There are 1,836,164 small business employees in New Jersey, which is 49.9% of the states’ employees.
  • In 2019, Small Businesses in New Jersey added 48,114 new jobs!
  • Small businesses employing 20 or fewer employees created the most job gains!
  • There are 145,721 self-employed minorities in New Jersey demonstrating diversity in the state.
  • International trade is a big part of New Jersey’s economy, and there are 18,953 small business exporters in New Jersey.
  • There are more professional, scientific & technical services small businesses in New Jersey than any other type – 144,041.
  • Real Estate and Rental Leasing firms make up the 2nd largest number of small businesses in New Jersey – 109,894.

NJ small business industries

How Many Small Businesses in New Jersey?

Over 908,000 are a lot of small businesses to be registered in any one state. Compared to the rest of the U.S., it represents 2.86% of all U.S. businesses. There are 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S.

The number of small businesses in New Jersey has been growing over the past several years.

  • In 2017 there were 843,989 small businesses, which increased to 861,373 in 2018 (2.05% increase).
  • In 2019 there were 884,049 small businesses which were 22,676 more than the state had in 2018 (2.66% increase).
  • From 2019 to 2020, the number of small businesses in New Jersey rose again, to 908,209. This is the second-largest increase in percentage terms over the past five years (2.7%) and demonstrates New Jersey’s stable and consistently growing economy.

New Jersey has an awful lot to offer employers and employees, and companies and entrepreneurs from all over the world continue to move to the state.

New Jersey has low business regulations, international access by sea and air, solid infrastructure, a stable and ever-growing economy, expanding labor market, incredibly good access to New York’s huge consumer market, a fantastic education system (47.7% college-educated), and a quality of life that is hard to find in many other states.

If you would like to download the latest 2020 Small Business Profile on New Jersey from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, the full Profile can be downloaded here.

Small Businesses in the US

New Jersey

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Jason Coles

Jason Coles is the Founder of Foreign USA and its Chief Content Writer and Editor. Recognized as a prolific business plan writer by many prominent immigration attorneys in the U.S. who refer his services to their clients regularly, Jason has written over 1,340 business plans across the past 17+ years for start-up companies and franchises looking to expand their footprint in the United States. Jason is considered a seasoned expert in his field. He creates detailed business plans for his clients that include five-year financial projections, market and industry analysis reports, demographic studies, organizational charts, job descriptions, employee hiring plans, and more.