Tennessee Business by the Numbers: 2026 Company Breakdown

Key findings

• Tennessee ranks 23rd nationally with 933,475 business records — 1.4% of all 64,799,929 U.S. records in the directory.
• An above-average share of large employers. Tennessee is 15th for records of companies with 500+ employees (1,948), with 20.9 per 10,000 records against 14.0 nationally (8th of 52 states).
• Tennessee has more communication and healthcare & life science than the U.S. mix:Communication is 2.6% of the state’s records against 2.2% nationally (1.2×); Healthcare & Life Science is 8.6% of the state’s records against 7.4% nationally (1.2×).
• Nashville is the state’s largest business hub, with 14.6% of all Tennessee records.
• Business is concentrated in a few metros: Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville together hold 33.8% of the state’s records.

How Tennessee ranks nationally

Tennessee and its closest neighbours by total business records. Select a state to open its own study.

Top Tennessee cities by number of business records

These 10 cities account for 51.7% of all records in Tennessee. Select any city to browse its full company list.

Browse all Tennessee companies →

Tennessee businesses by industry

Every record is classified by its primary industry using NAICS/SIC codes; the shares are of all Tennessee records. Select a sector to see those Tennessee companies.

What sets Tennessee apart

Sectors that make up a bigger share of Tennessee’s records than of the U.S. as a whole. A ratio of 2.0× means the sector is twice as common here as nationally. Select a sector to browse it.

Tennessee businesses by size

Most records in every state are small businesses. In Tennessee, 1.73% of records with a known size have 51 or more employees, against 1.77% nationally. 467 records belong to companies with $1 billion or more in revenue.

What the numbers show

Tennessee’s 933,475 records place it 23rd nationally, 1.4% of the U.S. total, and 15th for large employers. That large-employer rank is well above its rank by records, so its business base is weighted toward bigger companies. Activity clusters in its largest metros — Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville alone account for 33.8% of the state’s records — and the state leans toward communication and healthcare & life science compared with the rest of the country. For buyers and sellers, that means the deepest pools of suppliers sit in a handful of cities and sectors; the charts above link straight into each so you can shortlist by capability and region.

Methodology

Figures count records in Factur’s U.S. business directory as of July 2026, classified by city and primary industry using NAICS/SIC codes. Records cover manufacturers, suppliers and businesses of all sizes. They are not a count of unique companies: one company can have several records (for example one per department or location), and some records are duplicates. That affects large companies most, so treat raw totals as an upper bound and rely on the ranks, shares and comparisons, which it affects much less. These are directory totals, not official census figures. Percentages are computed against the Tennessee directory total; size shares use records with a known employee count. Data compiled by Factur, a sales and marketing firm for B2B manufacturers.