Manufacturing Companies by State: 2026 Establishments and Jobs

Manufacturing Companies by State, Ranked by Establishments

California is still the largest manufacturing market by location count, with 35,300 establishments. Texas ranks second with 21,034 establishments, then Florida with 14,341 establishments, New York with 13,837 establishments, and Ohio with 13,307 establishments. Together, those five states account for 97,819 manufacturing establishments, or 34.4% of the U.S. total.

Establishment counts and employment counts do not always move together. Indiana has 7,938 manufacturing establishments, fewer than Florida, but Indiana's plants employ 524,995 workers compared with Florida's 358,707 workers. That difference matters for marketing. A state with more small shops may need a different sales motion than a state dominated by large production campuses.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns, NAICS 31-33. Annual payroll is shown in millions of dollars. Payroll per employee and workers per location are Manufacturing Lead Generation calculations from Census establishment, employment and payroll fields.

The Largest Manufacturing States Are Not All Built the Same

California's 35,300 establishments are spread across aerospace, electronics, food, fabricated metals, medical products and thousands of specialty shops. The state's average manufacturing payroll per employee is $91,763, the highest among large manufacturing states in this dataset. That tells you the market is expensive, technical and dense. Selling there often requires deeper segmentation by process, compliance requirement and plant size.

Texas has 21,034 establishments and 869,062 manufacturing employees. The state has a larger average location than California, at 41.3 workers per establishment compared with California's 32.8 workers per establishment. That mix fits what you see on the ground: more energy, chemical, transportation, machinery and large industrial supply chain operations.

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Indiana make up the next industrial belt. Each one has more than 7,900 manufacturing establishments. These are the states where a narrow list, for example CNC job shops under 50 employees, plastic injection molders, packaging plants or contract metal fabricators, can turn into thousands of prospects without wasting ad spend across the whole country.

Top 10 States for Manufacturing Companies

The top 10 states by manufacturing establishment count are California, Texas, Florida, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. This top 10 states list is based on Census manufacturing employment by state and establishment data, not private directory scraping. It covers manufacturing businesses with paid employees across NAICS 31-33, from food processing and metal fabrication to aerospace manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and semiconductor manufacturing.

The manufacturing economy is not just a contest between the most populous state and the biggest industrial state. California has the most manufacturing companies by location count at 35,300 establishments. Texas has fewer locations at 21,034 establishments, but more workers per location. Illinois manufacturing remains deep too, with 12,465 establishments and 544,438 manufacturing workers.

Per capita rankings can be useful for economic development, but they answer a different question. This page ranks manufacturing companies by state using the number of manufacturing facilities and related manufacturing jobs. If you're building a prospect list, a state with more locations usually gives your sales team more doors to knock on. If you're comparing industrial density, add population and workforce size to calculate per capita or location quotient metrics. As a quick visualization, the table above shows where California leads, where Texas has scale, and where industrial Midwest manufacturing plants still carry a large share of total manufacturing activity.

The number of manufacturing companies also matters because the U.S. supports more than 12.3 million manufacturing jobs across these establishments. Manufacturing Week campaigns, automation suppliers, medical device component vendors and regional economic development teams can use this top 10 list as a starting point before narrowing by NAICS code, plant size or buyer role.

The top five states are California, Texas, Florida, New York and Ohio. States like California have a very different sector mix from states like Indiana or Wisconsin, so use the ranking as a filter, not as a final account list. California leads the country by plant location count, but reshoring, EV battery investment and defense supply chain work can shift demand toward other markets quickly. Food processing and pharmaceuticals also show up differently by state than automotive stamping or industrial machinery.

The dataset was released by Census in 2025 and covers 2023 annual County Business Patterns data. For trend analysis, compare it with Census 2022 CBP files and 2024 manufacturing economy releases from BEA, BLS and NAM when those series are updated. IndustrySelect, state manufacturing directories and local economic development lists can help with named-account research, but data from the Bureau is the cleanest source for a neutral count of establishments, number of employees and payroll. This page includes more than 100 data points across states, counties, sectors and size bands.

Large manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Boeing and Intel can dominate local employment, but they don't eliminate the supplier base around them. A major OEM plant usually creates demand for machining, tooling, packaging, calibration, industrial maintenance, logistics and contract manufacturing within driving distance.

Manufacturing Company Size: Most Locations Are Small, Most Workers Are Not

The U.S. manufacturing base is mostly small by location count. Census reports 102,567 manufacturing establishments with fewer than 5 employees and 49,034 establishments with 5 to 9 employees. That means 53.3% of manufacturing locations have fewer than 10 employees.

Employment is concentrated at the other end. Census counts only 1,037 manufacturing establishments with 1,000 or more employees, just 0.4% of locations. Those facilities employ 2,215,345 workers, or 18.0% of manufacturing employment.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns by employment size class, NAICS 31-33.

Manufacturing Sectors With the Most Company Locations

Fabricated metal product manufacturing is the largest sector by location count, with 53,790 establishments. Food manufacturing ranks second with 31,130 establishments, then miscellaneous manufacturing with 23,626 establishments, printing with 22,301 establishments, and machinery manufacturing with 21,668 establishments.

Transportation equipment tells the opposite story. It has 11,691 establishments, fewer than printing, wood products, furniture or beverage manufacturing, but it employs 1,682,910 workers. Aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and rail supply chains simply run larger facilities.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns, 3-digit manufacturing NAICS sectors.

Top Manufacturing Counties by Establishment Count

County data helps you find industrial clusters hidden inside big states. Los Angeles County has 10,122 manufacturing establishments, more than 41 states and D.C. Cook County, Illinois ranks second with 4,350 establishments, followed by Orange County, California with 4,281 establishments and Harris County, Texas with 4,126 establishments.

Look at the payroll column before you buy a list or pick a roadshow city. Santa Clara County has 1,984 manufacturing establishments but $13.87 billion in annual manufacturing payroll, more than many higher-count counties. That's electronics, advanced manufacturing and high-cost technical labor showing up in the data.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns county manufacturing data.

How Manufacturers and Industrial Sales Teams Should Use This Data

A national manufacturing campaign sounds efficient until you pay to reach the wrong plants. The better move is to match the data to the product. If your offer serves small job shops, start with states and counties that have high establishment counts and a heavy fabricated metals base. Census shows 53,790 fabricated metal product establishments, so that market is broad enough for narrow campaigns by process, tolerance, material or certification.

If your product needs a bigger facility, filter by employment density. Indiana averages 66.1 manufacturing employees per establishment, Wisconsin averages 56.6, and North Carolina averages 54.5. Those markets may be better for plant-wide services like predictive maintenance, safety systems, MES, robotics integration, industrial staffing or energy management.

Payroll per employee can also signal selling motion. Petroleum and coal products manufacturing shows $128,045 in annual payroll per employee, computer and electronic product manufacturing shows $105,268, and chemical manufacturing shows $97,721. Higher payroll often means more regulated work, more technical labor and higher cost of downtime.

The National Association of Manufacturers tracks the broader economic role of U.S. manufacturing, while BEA GDP by industry data measures the sector's value added and BLS industry data tracks employment and labor conditions. Use those macro sources to size the market. Use Census County Business Patterns to decide where the plants actually are.

Methodology

The main dataset comes from the U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns program, using 2023 annual data for NAICS 31-33, Manufacturing. Census says CBP provides subnational economic data for establishments with paid employees by industry and employment size. The 2023 release includes establishment counts, employment during the week of March 12, first quarter payroll and annual payroll.

We use the word companies because that is how most buyers search, but the Census unit is establishment. An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted or services are performed. One company can operate multiple establishments. For prospecting and territory planning, establishments are often more useful than parent-company counts because each location may have its own equipment, workforce, maintenance needs and local purchasing influence.

Payroll per employee and workers per location are calculated from Census fields. Annual payroll is reported by Census in thousands of dollars, then converted here to millions for table readability. Percent shares in the size-band table are calculated against the national manufacturing totals of 284,452 establishments and 12,335,234 employees.

Cite This Page

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns program overview
2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns release announcement
3. U.S. Census Bureau API, 2023 CBP state manufacturing data, NAICS 31-33
4. U.S. Census Bureau API, 2023 CBP manufacturing data by employment size class
5. U.S. Census Bureau API, 2023 CBP manufacturing data by 3-digit NAICS sector
6. U.S. Census Bureau API, 2023 CBP county manufacturing data
7. National Association of Manufacturers, Manufacturing in the United States
8. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry
9. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Manufacturing industry profile