City rankings

Top cities for new businesses in California

Sacramento had the most new businesses of any California city in the 12 months through September 2026: 26,547, 9% of the state total.

California cities with the most new businesses

#	City	New businesses	Share of state	Change
1	Sacramento	26,547	9%	-16%
2	Los Angeles	21,863	8%	-35%
3	San Diego	11,109	4%	-30%
4	San Francisco	10,877	4%	-26%
5	San Jose	5,462	2%	-30%
6	Irvine	4,800	2%	-34%
7	Fresno	3,648	1%	-28%
8	Glendale	3,191	1%	-40%
9	Bakersfield	3,030	1%	-30%
10	West Hollywood	2,867	1%	-29%
11	Oakland	2,767	1%	-29%
12	Long Beach	2,696	1%	-32%
13	Riverside	2,391	1%	-29%
14	Anaheim	2,067	1%	-35%
15	Beverly Hills	2,066	1%	-33%
16	North Hollywood	1,763	1%	-42%
17	Santa Monica	1,748	1%	-31%
18	Newport Beach	1,727	1%	-38%
19	Pasadena	1,691	1%	-38%
20	Ontario	1,677	1%	-26%
21	Huntington Beach	1,667	1%	-30%
22	Stockton	1,662	1%	-27%
23	Burbank	1,650	1%	-36%
24	Santa Ana	1,646	1%	-31%
25	Fremont	1,605	1%	-28%

New businesses formed in the 12 months through September 2026.

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The new California businesses behind these rankings are available as a file: name, address, entity type, formation month and, where the state publishes it, the registered agent.

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New Business File

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Every business formed in the last 12 months across 15 states: more than 2.2 million records, one CSV per state, with 2 monthly updates included.

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The formation date in the files is the year and month. Most records have no email address or EIN.

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Common questions

Which California city has the most new businesses?

Sacramento had the most new businesses of any California city in the 12 months through September 2026: 26,547, 9% of the state total.

Where do these numbers come from?

From California's official business registry. ListRiver counts businesses by the formation date the state reports and the city of the business address on file.

Monthly California new-business reports · All states ranked · California businesses by county and city

Methodology

Counts are businesses registered with the state of California whose formation (registration) date falls in the period shown and that appear on the state register in ListRiver's data. City is the business address on file, with spellings as the state records them. Businesses already dissolved are not counted, so the earlier 12 months are slightly understated and increases slightly overstated; the effect is similar across a state's cities, so the order is a fair comparison. More in the methodology.

Cite this page: ListRiver, “Top cities for new businesses in California”, https://listriver.com/reports/new-businesses/california/cities. Journalists and researchers are welcome to use these figures with a link.