How Many Small Businesses Are in Colorado? 2026

Colorado is home to 730,887 small businesses in 2026, which make up 99.5% of all firms in the state and employ 1.2 million people. This page pulls the current numbers together, from the Denver and Front Range clusters to formation costs, tax rates, and who actually owns these companies.

How Many Small Businesses Are in Colorado in 2026?

Nearly every business in Colorado is a small one, and together they cover close to half of all private-sector jobs. The headline counts come from the latest SBA state profile for Colorado.

Colorado has 730,887 small businesses, which is 99.5% of all businesses in the state.
Small businesses employ 1.2 million people in Colorado, about 48.6% of the state’s workforce.
The state is home to 583,986 nonemployer businesses, solo ventures with no paid staff, one of the highest rates in the country at 10.0 per 100 residents.
The small business count rose from 715,576 in 2024 to 730,887 in 2025, a steady year-over-year gain.
Small business employment in Colorado grew 25.3% between 1997 and 2021.

What Small Business Jobs Pay in Colorado

Pay in Colorado swings widely by industry, from six-figure averages in management and tech down to about $34,000 in accommodation and food service.

The average private-sector worker earned $81,426 in 2024, or about $1,566 per week.
The highest-paying sectors are management of companies ($174,853) and information ($154,739).
Professional, scientific and technical services pays about $135,061 a year on average.
Lower-wage sectors include accommodation and food services at $33,765 and retail trade at $44,239.
Colorado added 18,300 jobs in the year to August 2025, up 0.6%.

Colorado’s Biggest Small Business Industries

Colorado counts 246,252 private establishments employing roughly 2.4 million people. Professional and technical firms make up the biggest slice by number of firms, while health care puts the most people to work.

Professional, scientific and technical services is the largest sector by establishment count, with 55,432 establishments and 291,053 jobs.
Health care and social assistance leads employment, with 331,037 jobs across 23,680 establishments.
Construction supports 187,210 jobs across 21,702 establishments.
Retail trade covers 18,214 establishments and 274,327 jobs.
Accommodation and food services employs 288,906 workers across 15,026 establishments.
Other services add 19,150 establishments, while wholesale trade (14,603), real estate (14,700) and finance and insurance (13,955) each top 13,000 establishments.

Fastest-Growing Sectors in Colorado

Between 2023 and 2024, a handful of sectors added jobs faster than the rest.

Health care and social assistance grew employment 3.3%, the fastest among major sectors.
Educational services added 2.7%, followed by arts, entertainment and recreation and other services at about 2.6%.
Transportation and warehousing rounded out the leaders with 2.5% employment growth.

Small Business Hubs: Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder

Colorado’s business activity is concentrated along the Front Range corridor. The county figures below count every private employer, which is the pool small firms compete in.

Denver County is the largest business hub, with 43,024 private establishments and 565,183 jobs.
El Paso County (Colorado Springs) has 25,331 establishments and 309,483 jobs.
Boulder County hosts 18,751 establishments and 193,920 jobs, a dense tech and innovation cluster.

How Many New Businesses Colorado Registers Each Year

Coloradans kept starting businesses at a fast clip through 2025, well ahead of where things stood before 2020.

Coloradans filed about 142,000 new business applications in 2025, up from roughly 93,000 in 2020.
Annual applications peaked near 143,000 in 2023, then eased to about 132,000 in 2024 before rising again in 2025.
The Colorado Secretary of State logged 44,618 new business filings in the third quarter of 2025, up 7.2% year over year.
Existing businesses filed 190,058 renewals in the second quarter of 2025, showing a deep active base.
Between March 2022 and March 2023, small businesses opened 28,467 establishments and closed 25,483, a net gain of nearly 3,000.

Colorado Small Business Lending and Exports

Two outside forces show up in the Colorado small business picture: federal loan programs and export markets.

Small Business Lending in Colorado

In fiscal year 2024, SBA-backed programs sent more than a billion dollars to Colorado small businesses, according to SBA loan approval data.

The SBA backed 1,955 loans through its two main programs (7(a) and 504), worth about $1.1 billion in Colorado in FY2024.
SBA 7(a) loans totaled 1,799 loans for $936.8 million.
SBA 504 loans added 156 loans for $163.7 million, and the Microloan program provided 196 loans for $2.6 million.

Colorado Small Business Exports

Most Colorado companies that ship goods abroad are small, even if the largest firms move the bigger dollar volumes.

4,986 small firms exported from Colorado, 87.1% of all identified exporters.
Small businesses generated $3.0 billion in exports, 30.5% of the state’s identified-firm export value.
Colorado’s identified firms exported $9.8 billion total across 5,722 businesses.

Who Owns Colorado Small Businesses? Owner Demographics

The people behind Colorado’s businesses are a mixed group. Women and Hispanic founders each own a large share.

Women own 45.5% of Colorado businesses, close to their 45.8% share of the workforce.
Hispanic-owned businesses make up 13.8% of all firms, including 9,993 employer firms.
Among employer firms, Asian-owned businesses number 7,277, Black-owned 2,086, and American Indian or Alaska Native-owned 1,544.
Veteran-owned businesses represent 6.3% of firms, including 7,631 employer firms.

Colorado Economy, GDP and Tourism

A big, varied state economy sets the backdrop for everything above.

Colorado’s GDP reached $584.3 billion in 2025 in current dollars.
Adjusted for inflation, real GDP was $458.1 billion, up from 2024.
Nonemployer businesses alone generated $34.8 billion in receipts in 2022.

Colorado Tourism and Small Business

Visitors are a major customer for Colorado’s shops, restaurants, and lodges, a market the Colorado Tourism Office measures every year.

Travelers spent $28.5 billion in Colorado in 2024, fueling local small businesses statewide.
Colorado welcomed 95.4 million visitors in 2024, up 2.3% year over year.
Tourism supported more than 188,000 jobs and generated $1.9 billion in state and local tax revenue.

Starting a Small Business in Colorado: Costs and Taxes in 2026

Getting registered in Colorado does not cost much, which is part of why filings stay high. Our step-by-step guide to starting an LLC in Colorado walks through the whole process.

Colorado LLC and Corporation Filing Fees

The paperwork to register a business in Colorado is light, and so are the fees.

Filing Articles of Organization for a Colorado LLC costs $50, online only.
The annual Periodic Report fee is $25, up from $10 as of July 1, 2024.
Filing Articles of Incorporation for a corporation also costs $50. Every entity must appoint a Colorado registered agent with a physical in-state address.

Colorado Business Taxes and Minimum Wage

Colorado runs a single flat income tax rate and a modest state sales tax, though cities and counties add their own on top.

Colorado’s flat individual income tax rate is 4.40% for tax year 2025.
The state sales tax rate is 2.90%, before local add-ons.
Colorado’s minimum wage rose to $15.16 per hour on January 1, 2026, with a tipped wage of $12.14.

Comparing providers? See our roundup of the best Colorado LLC services for small business owners.

What Entrepreneurs Ask About Colorado Small Business in 2026

A few questions come up again and again from people starting out in Colorado. Here are straight answers, drawn from the same state and federal data used above.