+1 570 955 3538Sales Tax Licenses by County: 10 NEPA Counties Compared
Pennsylvania lists 37,586 active sales tax licenses and certificates in ten NEPA and Lehigh Valley counties. Wayne County has the most per resident, 30.2 per 1,000 people. Northampton County has the fewest, 19.1. In Lackawanna County, 84.0% of the 4,613 records are retail sales licenses. This page shows the counts, the types, and what they can and cannot tell you.
Selling taxable goods or services in the county? We can check how you show up online.
Map: county borders from U.S. Census TIGERweb. Shading: active sales tax licenses and certificates per 1,000 residents, five groups of two counties each, darker means higher. Base map: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Records per 1,000 residents
| County | Active records | Population | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne | 1,546 | 51,189 | 30.2 |
| Monroe | 4,914 | 167,784 | 29.3 |
| Susquehanna | 1,039 | 38,349 | 27.1 |
| Wyoming | 672 | 26,075 | 25.8 |
| Carbon | 1,569 | 65,191 | 24.1 |
| Schuylkill | 3,241 | 143,259 | 22.6 |
| Lackawanna | 4,613 | 215,834 | 21.4 |
| Luzerne | 6,728 | 325,978 | 20.6 |
| Lehigh | 7,230 | 375,408 | 19.3 |
| Northampton | 6,034 | 315,927 | 19.1 |
A record is a license or certificate tied to a location that the state tracks. Population is the ACS 2023 estimate.
What is in a Lackawanna County record
| Record type | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Sales License/Retail | 3,875 | 84.0% |
| Sales License/Wholesale | 341 | 7.4% |
| ST Exemption/Religious | 125 | 2.7% |
| ST Exemption/Charitable | 115 | 2.5% |
| ST Exemption/Volunteer Fire | 47 | 1.0% |
| ST Exemption/Veterans Association | 40 | 0.9% |
| ST Exemption/Relief Association | 29 | 0.6% |
| ST Exemption/Non Profit Education | 22 | 0.5% |
| ST Exemption/School District | 10 | 0.2% |
| Sales License/Promoter | 8 | 0.2% |
| ST Exemption/Miscellaneous | 1 | 0.0% |
Retail licenses are shops, restaurants and services that charge sales tax. The "ST Exemption" rows are certificates for churches, schools, volunteer fire companies and other groups that buy without tax. The wholesale rows are certificates for businesses that buy to resell.
How to read the numbers
This is not a business count. One company with five stores holds five records. A chain raises its county's total. A seller with no taxable sales may hold none. Use the figure to compare counties, not to say how many businesses exist. For that, use the density study, which counts employers.
It does show where retail is dense. Per-resident counts rise where shops, restaurants and service counters cluster. If you sell to retailers, high counts mean more buyers per mile. If you are one, they mean more neighbors fighting for the same search results.
Check the date. The dataset states it is refreshed monthly and removes licenses that were cancelled or expired without renewal. The metadata shows the last update on 2026-10-06.
Where the numbers come from
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, sales tax licenses and certificates (active records), data.pa.gov dataset ugeq-ckxd, refreshed 2026-10-06 per the dataset metadata. Pulled 2026-10-06.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2019–2023 (tables B01003, B01002, B19013, B25077, B11001, B28002). Pulled 2026-10-06.
- U.S. Census Bureau, TIGERweb county boundaries. Pulled 2026-10-06.
We counted records by county from the dataset's county field and did not remove duplicates.
FAQ
Which NEPA county has the most sales tax licenses?
By count, Lehigh County (7,230). Per resident, Wayne County leads.
Do these numbers include online sellers?
Only if they hold a Pennsylvania license tied to a location in the county. We cannot see sellers with an address elsewhere.
Can I look up a specific business?
Yes, on the state's open data portal. We publish only county totals here.
Why do exemption certificates appear in a sales list?
The state keeps them in the same system. We list them as their own rows so you can leave them out.
