Utah Small Business Statistics: 2026 Data and Trends

Utah entrepreneurs filed roughly 72,787 new business applications in 2025, more than in any other year we could tally from the Census Bureau’s monthly filing data. The companies already here tell the same story from the other side: 371,569 small businesses operate in the state in 2026, 99.4% of every firm on the books, and they employ 690,069 people, about 45.4% of Utah’s workforce.

The long view is just as striking. By the SBA Office of Advocacy’s measure, small business employment in Utah grew 63.7% between 1998 and 2022, the fastest rate of any state. Below you will find the 2026 numbers behind that momentum: industry data, wages, the Wasatch Front counties, filings, lending, exports, tourism, and what it costs to set up shop, each figure drawn from federal statistics or Utah’s own agencies and linked in the sources at the bottom.

371,569 and Counting: Utah Small Businesses in 2026

Almost every business in the state is small, and the yearly churn runs firmly toward openings. The figures come from the latest SBA state profile for Utah and the Census Bureau, and the count is moving quickly: 352,191 small businesses in the 2024 profile, 371,569 in the 2025 edition.

Who are they? A minority of them, 76,760 firms, actually have employees; that group represents 96.9% of all Utah employers and paid out $35.3 billion in wages in 2022, 39.5% of the state’s payroll. The far larger crowd is the 294,809 nonemployer businesses, one-person operations with no staff, which together brought in $17.6 billion in receipts that year.

• Utah counts 371,569 small businesses in 2026, which is 99.4% of all businesses in the state.
• They employ 690,069 people, or 45.4% of Utah workers.
• Between March 2023 and March 2024, establishments of every size saw 17,190 openings against 14,513 closures, a net gain of 2,677; small businesses drove 15,470 of those openings.
• Small firms produced a net 21,320 new jobs over that year, 88.1% of Utah’s total net job creation.

Utah Wages From Tech Salaries to Resort Pay

Pay stretches a long way across Utah’s industries, with software and finance desks at one end and ski-town service counters at the other. These 2024 figures cover every private employer in the state, large and small.

• The average private-sector wage was $66,893 in 2024.
• Information is the best-paying sector at $121,764 a year, ahead of utilities ($115,672), management of companies ($113,522), professional, scientific and technical services ($109,502), and finance and insurance ($103,465).
• At the other end of the scale, accommodation and food services pay $25,609 on average, arts and recreation $36,749, and retail $43,395.

Where you work matters as much as what you do: the average wage in Salt Lake County is $77,345, against $63,865 next door in Utah County.

Utah Industry Data: Who Employs the State

Sector by sector, Utah’s job base leans on hospitals, stores and factories, while professional services supply the largest number of employers. Health care and social assistance leads with 185,503 jobs in 2024, followed by retail trade at 179,051; manufacturing employs 152,131 people, accommodation and food services 143,500, and construction 138,261.

• Professional, scientific and technical services runs the most establishments of any sector, 27,256, about 1 in 5 private establishments statewide.
• Counting firms of every size, including solo ventures, professional services also tops the small business chart with 62,543 firms, ahead of real estate (48,058) and construction (35,362).

Which Utah Sectors Grew in 2024, and Which Shrank

The 2023 to 2024 employment shifts spread gains widely and handed the biggest loss to the state’s highest payer. Arts, entertainment and recreation grew fastest at 5.8%, with mining up 4.6%, health care 3.6%, construction 3.0%, and wholesale trade 2.7%. Utilities posted 14.2%, though from a very small base.

The counterweight sits in an unexpected place: information shed 3.4% of its jobs, about 1,404 positions, even though it pays more than any other sector, and retail slipped 1.0%. Utah’s best-paid work, in other words, was also its softest in 2024.

The Wasatch Front: Salt Lake, Utah County and Ogden

Utah’s economy sits in a narrow band along the mountains. One note on the numbers: county totals in the federal wage census span all private employers, from sole offices to the largest campuses. Salt Lake County concentrates 66,131 establishments and 685,384 private jobs, about 47.2% of the state total, and its tech bench runs deep: professional and technical services employ 75,877 people at an average $119,573, while information roles pay $124,691.

• Utah County, home to Provo, Lehi and the Silicon Slopes corridor, adds 260,871 jobs, roughly 18% of the state.
• Information jobs in Utah County average $135,649, more than the same work pays in Salt Lake County.
• Weber County runs on manufacturing, with 19,612 factory jobs around Ogden at $81,502 average pay, while Davis County held roughly flat in 2024 (down 0.3%).

Add the four counties together and the Wasatch Front holds about 79.8% of Utah’s private employment, four jobs in five packed into that mountain corridor.

Utah Startup Filings Hit a New High in 2025

Census filing data tells a growth story with a single pause. Annual totals here are sums of monthly figures, so treat them as close approximations: about 49,669 applications in 2019, 63,272 in 2021, 71,450 in 2023, then a slight easing to 68,471 in 2024.

Then came 2025. Utahns submitted about 72,787 new business applications, 6.3% more than the year before and the highest annual total in the state’s Census filing series going back to 2018. Whatever slowed 2024 did not last.

Utah’s Borrowers and Exporters

Financing and foreign sales both tilt toward the small end of Utah’s business base.

SBA Dollars Flowing to Utah

Federal loan guarantees reach a lot of Utah balance sheets, and fiscal 2024 was busier than the year before. SBA lenders approved 1,153 7(a) loans worth $540.5 million, a jump of roughly 28% from the 901 loans of fiscal 2023; adding 181 504 loans ($182.5 million) brings the combined total to about 1,334 loans and $723.0 million.

• Under the Community Reinvestment Act, banks reported $753.8 million in new loans to Utah businesses with revenues of $1 million or less in 2023.

Small Firms Drive Utah’s Export Value

The export ledger tilts hard toward smaller shippers, in dollars as well as in headcount. Utah identified 3,801 exporting firms in 2023, and 3,233 of them, or 85.1%, were small businesses. Those small exporters shipped $9.9 billion in goods, 60.2% of the state’s $16.4 billion in identified exports that year.

Utah Business Owners: Women, Veterans and Minority Founders

Ownership data from the SBA profile and the Census business surveys sketches who stands behind Utah’s firms.

• Women own 44.5% of Utah businesses; among employer firms, 13,429 are female-owned and another 11,203 are owned equally by women and men (2022 data).
• Veterans own 4.4% of the state’s businesses, including 2,671 employer firms.
• Hispanic entrepreneurs own 10.8% of Utah businesses, with 4,571 employer firms; Asian-owned employer firms number 2,650 and Black-owned 411.
• Counting solo ventures as well, 26,449 Utah businesses are rural, set against 286,125 urban ones.

Utah’s $316 Billion Output and the Visitor Economy

Two engines run under the state’s headline numbers: overall production, and the money visitors leave behind. Utah’s GDP reached $315.97 billion in 2025, up from $299.47 billion in 2024; after inflation, that works out to real growth of about 2.8% for the year, per federal economic accounts.

Ski Season, National Parks and Visitor Dollars

The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute tracks what travel adds to Utah, and its latest report covers 2023 spending alongside 2024 activity.

• Travelers spent $12.71 billion in Utah in 2023, a record for direct visitor spending according to the institute.
• Tourism carries 103,800 direct jobs plus about 56,000 indirect ones, roughly 1 in 11 jobs statewide, and generated $1.90 billion in direct state and local taxes in 2023.
• 2024 set marks of its own: 28.4 million passengers through Salt Lake City International, 11.2 million national park visits, and a record 13.0 million state park visitors.
• The 2023-24 ski season logged 6.7 million skier days and a record $2.67 billion in spending.

The Price of Doing Business in Utah, 2026 Edition

Utah keeps its paperwork cheap and its tax code flat, which is part of why the filing numbers above keep climbing.

The $59 LLC: Utah’s Filing and Renewal Fees

Utah keeps the formation paperwork short and the invoice shorter.

• Filing a certificate of organization costs $59 for a domestic LLC, and the annual renewal runs just $18.
• Incorporating also costs $59 with the same $18 yearly renewal; a DBA registration is $22, a name reservation $22, and expedited processing adds $75 per filing (FY2026 fee schedule).
• Every new company must also designate a Utah registered agent available at a physical address in the state.

For the process end to end, follow our step-by-step walkthrough for starting an LLC in Utah, and if you would rather hand the filing off, compare the best LLC services in Utah first.

A 4.45% Flat Tax: What Utah Businesses Pay

The tax code runs flat, and the single rate just moved a notch lower, covering personal and corporate income alike.

• Utah’s individual income tax is a flat 4.45% as of January 1, 2026, trimmed from 4.5% in 2025 under Utah Code 59-10-104.
• The corporate franchise tax matches it at 4.45%, with a $100 minimum.
• Sales tax starts at a 4.85% state portion; the lowest combined rate anywhere in Utah is 6.35%. Salt Lake City charges 8.45% all-in, including a new 0.5% Capital City Revitalization tax, Provo and Lehi sit at 7.45%, and Park City tops the list at 9.55% (rates in effect July 1, 2026).
• Grocery food is taxed at a reduced 3.00% statewide, and the minimum wage is $7.25, matching the federal floor.

Quick Answers on Utah Small Business

Sources

• The SBA Office of Advocacy, Utah 2025 Small Business Profile supplied the business counts, employment shares, ownership breakdown, and export figures on this page.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages covers 2024 pay, employment, and establishment numbers for each Utah industry and county.
• The U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics and Nonemployer Statistics underpin the filing trend and the solo-business counts.
• U.S. Small Business Administration loan program data backs the fiscal 2024 7(a) and 504 approval totals for Utah.
• The Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts puts Utah’s output at $316 billion and anchors the real growth estimate.
• The Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code maintains the fee schedule that fixes the $59 filing and $18 renewal costs.
• The Utah State Tax Commission lists every local sales tax rate, from the 6.35% floor to Park City’s 9.55%.
• The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute wrote the travel and tourism report behind the visitor spending and ski season figures.