TL;DR
- Jefferson County is on pace for its busiest year ever for new businesses: 496 locally based businesses formed through September, on track for about 666 by December. That is more than three times the 179 formed in 2000.
- Most of the growth is LLCs, now 77% of new local businesses (39% in 2000), led by real estate and construction.
- Lewis County’s famously high numbers are mostly New York City companies on paper: 56% of its new LLCs since 2010 list a New York City legal address. Strip those out and local business formation there has still doubled since 2019.
A record year in the making
In January 2025 we looked at business formation across the North Country using the businesses still active today. This update uses something better: every formation filed with the New York Department of State since 2000, including businesses that have since closed, 28,233 in all across Jefferson, Oswego, St. Lawrence and Lewis counties.
The trend is unmistakable. New business formation climbed steadily through the 2010s, jumped during the pandemic, and has stayed high since.
Data
| Year | Jefferson | Oswego | St. Lawrence | Lewis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 179 | 163 | 125 | 26 |
| 2001 | 179 | 200 | 123 | 41 |
| 2002 | 176 | 207 | 137 | 41 |
| 2003 | 211 | 201 | 159 | 27 |
| 2004 | 247 | 207 | 150 | 44 |
| 2005 | 271 | 233 | 193 | 55 |
| 2006 | 265 | 220 | 151 | 52 |
| 2007 | 265 | 211 | 172 | 43 |
| 2008 | 197 | 195 | 158 | 48 |
| 2009 | 196 | 177 | 136 | 43 |
| 2010 | 183 | 185 | 139 | 89 |
| 2011 | 201 | 215 | 170 | 65 |
| 2012 | 263 | 234 | 183 | 114 |
| 2013 | 228 | 252 | 186 | 89 |
| 2014 | 268 | 295 | 214 | 80 |
| 2015 | 306 | 233 | 194 | 73 |
| 2016 | 308 | 272 | 219 | 74 |
| 2017 | 322 | 275 | 231 | 86 |
| 2018 | 308 | 339 | 245 | 68 |
| 2019 | 353 | 355 | 237 | 76 |
| 2020 | 419 | 356 | 228 | 138 |
| 2021 | 581 | 411 | 327 | 151 |
| 2022 | 607 | 480 | 366 | 142 |
| 2023 | 603 | 543 | 386 | 181 |
| 2024 | 533 | 480 | 384 | 134 |
| 2025 | 556 | 583 | 424 | 181 |
| 2026 | 666 | 674 | 471 | 215 |
Jefferson County formed 306 locally based businesses in 2015 and 556 in 2025. With 496 already on file by September 29, 2026 is on pace for about 666, which would top the previous high of 607 in 2022 if filings keep their usual rhythm through the fall. Oswego County is on a record pace too.
What is being formed
About a third of new businesses have a name that says what they do. Among those, real estate leads by a wide margin, and construction has more than doubled since the late 2010s. Landscaping, cleaning and retail are small but growing fast.
Data
| Trade | New businesses 2021–2025 |
|---|---|
| Real estate / property · 1.8× vs 2015–19 | 465 |
| Construction / general contractor · 2.2× vs 2015–19 | 94 |
| Financial / consulting / accounting · 1.3× vs 2015–19 | 49 |
| Auto / mechanic / repair · 1.3× vs 2015–19 | 36 |
| Landscape / lawn / tree · 3.2× vs 2015–19 | 35 |
| Retail / shops · 5.8× vs 2015–19 | 35 |
| Trucking / hauling · 1.1× vs 2015–19 | 33 |
| Food / restaurants · 1.8× vs 2015–19 | 33 |
Read this as a direction, not a census: the other two thirds (“Smith Enterprises LLC”) can’t be sorted by name alone.
The Lewis County effect
Lewis County, with about 27,000 residents, has long shown a remarkable number of new businesses per person. The filings explain why. Since 2010, more than half of the LLCs listing Lewis County as their home have a legal address in New York City, compared with about 4–5% in the other three counties. A single Manhattan incorporation firm filed several hundred of them.
Data
| County | Share of LLCs |
|---|---|
| Jefferson | 4.7% |
| Oswego | 3.8% |
| St. Lawrence | 3.9% |
| Lewis | 56.3% |
The likely reason is cost. Every new LLC in New York must publish a notice in two newspapers in the county where it lists its office, and that costs far less in a small upstate county than in Manhattan. The filings don’t record a motive, but the pattern is consistent with it. These companies list Lewis County on paper; they are not businesses operating there.
Data
| Year | All filings | Locally based |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 27 | 26 |
| 2001 | 43 | 41 |
| 2002 | 42 | 41 |
| 2003 | 30 | 27 |
| 2004 | 47 | 44 |
| 2005 | 57 | 55 |
| 2006 | 55 | 52 |
| 2007 | 53 | 43 |
| 2008 | 58 | 48 |
| 2009 | 65 | 43 |
| 2010 | 218 | 89 |
| 2011 | 181 | 65 |
| 2012 | 282 | 114 |
| 2013 | 222 | 89 |
| 2014 | 248 | 80 |
| 2015 | 273 | 73 |
| 2016 | 278 | 74 |
| 2017 | 279 | 86 |
| 2018 | 232 | 68 |
| 2019 | 248 | 76 |
| 2020 | 261 | 138 |
| 2021 | 213 | 151 |
| 2022 | 146 | 142 |
| 2023 | 246 | 181 |
| 2024 | 217 | 134 |
| 2025 | 238 | 181 |
| 2026 | 278 | 215 |
Once those filings are set aside, the real story in Lewis County is a good one: locally based formation averaged 75 a year in 2015–2019 and 158 a year in 2021–2025, roughly double.
Per resident
Adjusted for population, and counting only locally based businesses, Jefferson, Oswego and St. Lawrence are close to one another, and Lewis is still well ahead even after the New York City filings are removed.
Data
| County | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|
| Jefferson | 4.8 |
| Oswego | 4.9 |
| St. Lawrence | 4 |
| Lewis | 6.8 |
Why we don’t subtract closures
It is tempting to compute “new businesses minus closed businesses”. The data won’t support it. Most closures are recorded in batches, when the state dissolves businesses that stopped filing or paying taxes (“dissolution by proclamation”), not when the business actually stops. In Jefferson County those sweeps show up as spikes, and only 44 closures have been recorded since 2022, which says more about the timing of the next sweep than about business survival.
Data
| Year | Closures recorded |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 10 |
| 2025 | 9 |
| 2024 | 6 |
| 2023 | 9 |
| 2022 | 10 |
| 2021 | 23 |
| 2020 | 46 |
| 2019 | 52 |
| 2018 | 59 |
| 2017 | 50 |
| 2016 | 147 |
| 2015 | 44 |
| 2014 | 46 |
| 2013 | 49 |
| 2012 | 121 |
| 2011 | 167 |
| 2010 | 146 |
| 2009 | 108 |
| 2008 | 41 |
| 2007 | 52 |
| 2006 | 47 |
| 2005 | 29 |
| 2004 | 90 |
| 2003 | 83 |
| 2002 | 96 |
| 2001 | 91 |
| 2000 | 116 |
What it means for local businesses
More new businesses means more competition in the fields where formation is concentrated, especially property and construction, and more demand for the services every new business needs in its first year: bookkeeping, insurance, websites, equipment, space. It also means more owners making early decisions about how they will run things, which is where good processes and good numbers pay off most.
What changed since the 2025 analysis
- All filings, not survivors. The 2025 post counted businesses active today by the year they formed, which undercounts older years. This one counts every formation as filed.
- Where the business is actually based. Each formation is tagged by its legal address, which is how the Lewis County pattern surfaced.
- Per resident. Counties are compared per 1,000 residents.
Method and limits
- Data: NY Department of State, Corporations and Other Entities: All Filings and its Address table (data.ny.gov), through Sept 29, 2026; ACS 2020–2024 county population.
- Formations are articles of organization (LLCs), certificates of incorporation, applications of authority (out-of-state businesses registering in New York) and limited-partnership certificates, counted by the county listed for the office.
- “Locally based” excludes formations whose service-of-process address is in New York City. Some filings with other non-local addresses remain, so this is conservative.
- Trades are assigned from the business name; about 32% of 2021–2025 formations could be classified.
- The 2026 pace assumes filings continue at this year’s rate through December.
The original 2025 analysis, with its animated charts: Northern NY Business Formation Patterns.