The New York Department of State publishes its register of active businesses as open data. As of the most recent extract there are 4,262,255 active entities on that register. This page summarises what is in it — how those businesses break down by county and by entity type, and how many of them owe a Biennial Statement. Every figure is calculated directly from the State's own dataset, and the underlying data is free for anyone to check.
Last updated: 10 August 2026
The headline numbers
- 4,262,255 active entities are on the New York Department of State register.
- 3,905,759 of them — roughly 92% — are LLCs or business corporations, the two categories required to file a Biennial Statement every two years.
- The remaining 356,496 are entity types that do not file a Biennial Statement, including not-for-profit corporations, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships.
- Limited liability companies outnumber corporations: about 2,261,516 LLCs against 1,644,243 corporations.
- Nearly half of all New York entities — 2,107,400, or 49% — are registered in the five boroughs of New York City.
- At the State's $9 Biennial Statement fee, the entities that owe one represent roughly $35.2 million in State filing fees per two-year cycle.
Active entities by county
New York County (Manhattan) alone accounts for 19% of the register. The fifteen largest counties are shown below; the State has 62 in total.
| County | Active entities | Share of State |
|---|---|---|
| New York County | 828,261 | 19.4% |
| Kings County | 596,929 | 14.0% |
| Queens County | 439,541 | 10.3% |
| Nassau County | 405,585 | 9.5% |
| Suffolk County | 342,409 | 8.0% |
| Albany County | 238,787 | 5.6% |
| Westchester County | 237,426 | 5.6% |
| Bronx County | 161,238 | 3.8% |
| Erie County | 119,757 | 2.8% |
| Rockland County | 100,278 | 2.4% |
| Monroe County | 94,848 | 2.2% |
| Richmond County | 81,431 | 1.9% |
| Orange County | 76,694 | 1.8% |
| Onondaga County | 57,589 | 1.4% |
| Dutchess County | 47,729 | 1.1% |
Albany County is worth a note, because its position in the table is misleading. A great many out-of-state companies appoint a registered agent in Albany, near the Department of State, so the county of record often reflects where an entity's agent sits rather than where the business actually trades. County data from this register measures registration, not economic activity.
Active entities by type
The right-hand column shows whether that entity type owes a Biennial Statement. Business corporations file under Business Corporation Law § 408 and LLCs under Limited Liability Company Law § 301(e). Not-for-profit corporations, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships do not file one. The table lists the eleven largest categories; the register carries around forty entity types in total, so the rows below do not sum to the 4,262,255 figure above.
| Entity type | Active entities | Files a Biennial Statement |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic limited liability company | 2,036,535 | Yes |
| Domestic business corporation | 1,449,897 | Yes |
| Domestic not-for-profit corporation | 286,825 | No |
| Foreign limited liability company | 171,974 | Yes |
| Foreign business corporation | 134,271 | Yes |
| Domestic professional service corporation | 60,075 | Yes |
| Domestic professional service LLC | 53,007 | Yes |
| Foreign limited partnership | 20,518 | No |
| Domestic limited partnership | 15,186 | No |
| Foreign not-for-profit corporation | 10,102 | No |
| Domestic registered LLP | 4,816 | No |
Why the filing burden is spread across the whole year
New York does not use a single statewide deadline. Each entity's Biennial Statement is due in the calendar month its original formation document was filed with the Department of State, and then every two years. With 3,905,759 entities on a two-year cycle keyed to twelve different months, roughly 162,739 statements come due in an average month.
That design has an unusual consequence. Because the deadline is personal rather than statewide, nothing in the calendar reminds an owner that it has arrived, and no news coverage marks the date. It is the single biggest structural reason New York entities fall behind — the deadline is invisible unless you are tracking it yourself. Our due date guide explains how to work out your own month.
Using these figures. You are welcome to cite or reproduce any statistic on this page, with attribution and a link back to this page. The source is the New York Department of State's Active Corporations dataset, published on the State's open data portal, and the calculations are ours. If you need a cut of the data that is not shown here, get in touch and we will run it.
Method and source
All counts come from the New York Department of State's Active Corporations: Beginning 1800 dataset published on the New York State open data portal, which lists every entity currently active on the Division of Corporations register together with its DOS ID, entity type, county, jurisdiction and initial filing date. Counts were taken by aggregate query against that dataset.
Two limitations are worth stating plainly. First, the register records active entities, so it is a stock figure and not a count of formations in any given year. Second, the dataset does not publish whether an entity's Biennial Statement has actually been filed, so nothing here should be read as a count of compliant or past-due businesses — only of entities that owe the filing. For the rules themselves, the authoritative source is the New York Department of State.
You can look up any individual entity in this register free: search by name with the New York business name search, find a number with the DOS ID lookup, or browse the business record directory by county. For what the filing costs, see the $9 fee explained; if a filing has been missed, one filing brings the record currentIf you never file.