These States are the Most Open for Business – Michigan Ranks 20th for Business Creation in the U.S.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Article courtesy of iPostal1.

• New York leads the nation with 39,422 business applications per 100,000 residents since 2019, followed by Florida (20,461) and Georgia (16,783).
• Wyoming shows the highest percentage increase in business applications from 2019 to 2024 at 215.8%, while Delaware ranks second with a 121.6% increase.
• North Dakota ranks last with only 95 business applications per 100,000 residents, less than 0.25% of New York’s rate.

Entrepreneurship in America is booming, but not all states are sharing the success equally. A new study has revealed huge differences across the country – with New York far ahead of the pack and Wyoming seeing the fastest growth since 2019.

Experts at digital mailbox provider iPostal1 looked into business-application data from the U.S. Census Bureau between 2019 and 2024 to uncover where Americans are most likely to start a new company.

Michigan’s findings:

Michigan ranks 20th for business creation in the U.S. with 2,151 applications per 100,000 people, totalling 134,697 filings in 2024 – a 42.6% rise since 2019. Compared to neighboring Ohio, which ranks 11th with 7,242 applications per 100,000 people, and Indiana, in 17th place with 3,035 per 100,000, Michigan records lower business-formation intensity than its closest regional counterparts.

The top 10 states for new business creation

New York takes the crown as the nation’s business-creation capital, recording 39,422 applications per 100,000 residents in 2024 – almost twice as many as Florida in second place (20,467) and Georgia in third (16,783). In total, New York saw 291,773 business applications, a 27.4% jump from 2019.

Florida follows with the highest total number of filings at 631,896 – a 61.3% increase since 2019 – while Georgia logged 242,706 applications, up 41.1% over the same period.

Illinois ranks fourth with 16,269 applications per 100,000 residents, a 45.8% increase over the past five years.

New Jersey comes next with 13,747 applications per 100,000 people, a 36.1% increase, followed by Massachusetts in sixth at 11,611, up 31.5% over the past five years.

Despite its size, California places seventh per capita with 10,007 business applications per 100,000 residents – up 41.4% since 2019 – though its 516,124 total filings make it one of the most active states overall.
Texas ranks eighth with 8,202 business applications per 100,000 residents, registering a 60.2% increase over the past five years.
North Carolina follows closely in ninth, with 8,158 business applications per 100,000 residents – a 57.8% increase since 2019 – while Ohio rounds out the top ten at 7,242 per 100,000 people, up 53% over the same period.

The states with the lowest business creation rates

But while many states are seeing record levels of entrepreneurship, others are struggling to keep pace. North Dakota sits at the bottom of the ranking, with just 95 business applications per 100,000 residents – rising by a modest 22.1% since 2019.

In Delaware, the rate is slightly higher at 145 applications per 100,000 people. Despite placing among the slower states, Delaware had one of the sharpest jumps in the nation – a 121.6% rise in just five years.

Next is Idaho, with 156 business applications per 100,000 residents in 2024 – up nearly 44% since 2019 – followed by Vermont, with 170 applications per 100,000 people and an increase of 29.7%.

Completing the bottom five is South Dakota, where 191 business applications per 100,000 residents were recorded in 2024 – a 46.4% rise that still leaves it among the least active states for new business creation.

When it comes to growth, some states are racing ahead while others have barely moved. Wyoming and Delaware saw the highest percentage increases in business applications over the past five years – 215.8% and 121.6%, respectively. But Alaska, on the other hand, had the slowest growth in the nation, up just 12.2%.

“The U.S. has no shortage of ambition, but opportunity isn’t spread evenly,” says Jeff Milgram, CEO and founder of iPostal1. “In states like New York, Florida, and Texas, entrepreneurship is booming – people are starting businesses, taking risks, and finding opportunity.”

“But other states are still catching up. Sometimes it’s access to funding, sometimes local policy, or just the confidence that new ventures will be supported. Those details matter more than most people think.

“When small businesses can find funding, mentorship, and a clear path through regulation, as well as the tools and resources to set up their businesses which include virtual mailing addresses and digital mailboxes, we see numbers rise fast – as we’ve seen not just in Wyoming and Delaware, but across much of the South and Northeast.”

Methodology:

Business application data for each U.S. state in 2019 and 2024 was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of businesses per 100,000 people was calculated using each state’s 2024 population, allowing for consistent comparison across states.

States were then ranked from highest to lowest based on business creation rates, and the percentage change from 2019 was calculated to measure growth over time.

Note: Although not all business applications are filed by state residents, a per-capita measure helps standardize the comparison across states and gives a clearer sense of business-formation intensity and growth.

Full data: