+1 570 955 3538Business Density by County: Firms per 1,000 Residents in 10 NEPA Counties
Wayne County has 26.5 employer establishments per 1,000 residents. Carbon County has 18.5. Across ten counties of northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley, the Census Bureau counted 37,900 employer establishments in 2023, with 683,833 employees. This page ranks the counties and shows where the federal government spends contract money.
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Map: county borders from U.S. Census TIGERweb. Shading: employer establishments per 1,000 residents, five groups of two counties each, darker means higher. Base map: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Ranking: firms per 1,000 residents
| County | Population | Employer establishments | Employees | Per 1,000 residents | Annual payroll per employee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne | 51,189 | 1,355 | 13,374 | 26.5 | $46,102 |
| Wyoming | 26,075 | 633 | 8,032 | 24.3 | $60,544 |
| Lackawanna | 215,834 | 5,198 | 91,059 | 24.1 | $49,322 |
| Lehigh | 375,408 | 8,681 | 201,146 | 23.1 | $63,513 |
| Susquehanna | 38,349 | 855 | 7,461 | 22.3 | $48,383 |
| Luzerne | 325,978 | 7,212 | 139,382 | 22.1 | $52,376 |
| Monroe | 167,784 | 3,527 | 47,564 | 21.0 | $49,058 |
| Northampton | 315,927 | 6,529 | 121,192 | 20.7 | $56,792 |
| Schuylkill | 143,259 | 2,705 | 41,596 | 18.9 | $50,547 |
| Carbon | 65,191 | 1,205 | 13,027 | 18.5 | $41,692 |
An establishment is one business location with paid employees. Payroll per employee is annual payroll divided by employees in the same Census table.
What the gap does and does not tell you
A higher density means more employers per resident. It does not mean more demand. A county with few firms per resident may be underserved. It may also be a place where people drive to the next county to shop. The data cannot separate those cases.
Pay per employee runs from $41,692 in Carbon County to $63,513 in Lehigh County. If you sell to households, that gap changes what a fair price looks like. Look at pay beside density before you copy a pricing page from the next county.
Federal contract dollars by county
Large federal awards land in a few places. The table shows prime contracts by place of performance for fiscal year 2025, divided by residents.
| County | Federal contracts, FY2025 ($ million) | Per resident |
|---|---|---|
| Luzerne | 698.4 | $2,142 |
| Lackawanna | 255.0 | $1,181 |
| Monroe | 172.9 | $1,030 |
| Lehigh | 188.6 | $502 |
| Wayne | 9.6 | $188 |
| Schuylkill | 9.7 | $68 |
| Northampton | 20.1 | $64 |
| Carbon | 2.8 | $43 |
| Susquehanna | 0.7 | $18 |
Wyoming County has no row in the source response, so we show no figure for it. One big award can swing a small county, so treat per-resident values as a snapshot, not a trend. If you sell to government or its suppliers, note that Luzerne ($698.4 million) and Lackawanna ($255.0 million) have the largest totals in this file.
Where the numbers come from
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023. Open data: census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp. 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.
- USAspending.gov, spending by geography, prime contracts (award types A–D), place of performance, federal fiscal year 2025 (Oct 2024 to Sep 2025). Pulled 2026-10-06.
- U.S. Census Bureau, TIGERweb county boundaries. Pulled 2026-10-06.
Population uses the ACS estimate for every county so the ratios share one base. USAspending reports its own population field, which differs by a few dozen residents.
FAQ
Which NEPA county has the most businesses per resident?
Wayne County, with 26.5 employer establishments per 1,000 residents in 2023.
Are one-person businesses included?
No. County Business Patterns counts locations with paid employees. Owners with no staff are left out.
Why compare density at all?
It shows how many employers share each resident's attention. It is a starting point for local advertising and hiring decisions, not an answer.
How current is this?
The business counts are for 2023, the latest full-year release we used. Federal contracts are fiscal year 2025.
