Wisconsin Business by the Numbers: 2026 Company Breakdown

Key findings

• Wisconsin ranks 26th nationally with 651,680 business records — 1.0% of all 64,799,929 U.S. records in the directory.
• An above-average share of large employers. Wisconsin is 22nd for records of companies with 500+ employees (1,523), with 23.4 per 10,000 records against 14.0 nationally (4th of 52 states).
• Wisconsin has more food & beverage and healthcare & life science than the U.S. mix:Food & Beverage is 3.2% of the state’s records against 1.4% nationally (2.2×); Healthcare & Life Science is 10.3% of the state’s records against 7.4% nationally (1.4×).
• Milwaukee is the state’s largest business hub, with 12.4% of all Wisconsin records.
• Business is concentrated in a few metros: Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay together hold 21.6% of the state’s records.

How Wisconsin ranks nationally

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

Top Wisconsin cities by number of business records

These 10 cities account for 32.3% of all records in Wisconsin. Select any city to browse its full company list.

Browse all Wisconsin companies →

Wisconsin businesses by industry

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

What sets Wisconsin apart

Sectors that make up a bigger share of Wisconsin’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.

Wisconsin businesses by size

Most records in every state are small businesses. In Wisconsin, 2.09% of records with a known size have 51 or more employees, against 1.77% nationally. 362 records belong to companies with $1 billion or more in revenue.

What the numbers show

Wisconsin’s 651,680 records place it 26th nationally, 1.0% of the U.S. total, and 22nd 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 — Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay alone account for 21.6% of the state’s records — and the state leans toward food & beverage 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 Wisconsin directory total; size shares use records with a known employee count. Data compiled by Factur, a sales and marketing firm for B2B manufacturers.