New business applications in South Carolina, 2019 to 2025

South Carolina residents filed 94,104 new business applications in 2025, the second-highest annual total in the Census Bureau's Business Formation Statistics (BFS), which for South Carolina go back to 2005. Only 2021, with 96,369 by our sum of monthly figures, was higher, and 2026 is on pace to pass it. Through September 2026 there were 81,831 applications, 13.2 percent more than the 72,306 filed in the first nine months of 2025.

BFS counts applications for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) filed with the IRS, after the Census Bureau removes filings such as trusts, estates and tax liens. An application is a signal of intent, not a business that has opened. Many become sole proprietorships with no employees, some never start, and some are new entities for existing owners. The series is still the earliest public measure of how many new businesses are forming.

They have roughly tripled since the early 2010s. From 2005 to 2014, South Carolina applications stayed between about 31,600 and 37,500 a year, with a low of 31,584 in 2010. They climbed steadily from 2015 to 2019, then jumped 38 percent in 2020 and another 36 percent in 2021. Since then they have held between about 86,000 and 96,000 a year, and 2025's 94,104 is 2.98 times the 2010 level.

South Carolina's share of national activity has also risen. In 2019 the state accounted for 1.47 percent of U.S. business applications; in 2025 it accounted for 1.66 percent, slightly more than its 1.61 percent share of the U.S. population. Put simply, South Carolina went from forming businesses at a below-average rate to an above-average one, which fits a state that has been adding residents through migration faster than most.

About one in four. The Census Bureau flags high-propensity business applications as those with a high likelihood of becoming businesses with payroll, based on features of the application such as corporate status, planned hiring or certain industry codes. South Carolina had 24,702 of them in 2025, up 47.9 percent from 16,703 in 2019.

That is slower growth than total applications, so the share of filings likely to become employers fell from 32.4 percent in 2019 to 26.2 percent in 2025. The same shift happened nationally, from 37.6 to 30.1 percent. Most of the extra applications since 2019 are for very small or one-person ventures: side businesses, independent contractors, online sellers and solo professionals.

The Census Bureau also projects how many applications will become employer businesses within eight quarters. For South Carolina that projection rose from 4,311 for 2019 applications to 6,059 for 2025 applications, a 40.5 percent increase, against 30.2 percent nationally. Applications that list a planned first payroll date rose more slowly, from 6,698 to 7,683.

South Carolina's application rate is above the national average and its neighbors except Georgia. In 2025 the state had 17.2 applications per 1,000 residents, against 16.7 for the U.S., 16.5 for North Carolina and 14.3 for Tennessee. Georgia, at 22.8 per 1,000, ranks sixth among the states and the District of Columbia; South Carolina ranks 15th.

On high-propensity applications, the picture flips slightly. South Carolina's 4.5 per 1,000 residents is below the U.S. rate of 5.0 and North Carolina's 4.7, close to Tennessee's 4.2 and well below Georgia's 6.3. South Carolina's filing boom has been more concentrated in very small ventures than the national pattern, and its growth since 2019 (82.7 percent) outpaced the U.S. (62.1 percent), North Carolina (76.3 percent), Tennessee (75.8 percent) and Georgia (47.9 percent).

The 2026 numbers so far show the whole region accelerating. From January through September, South Carolina applications were up 13.2 percent on the same months of 2025, almost identical to North Carolina's 13.1 percent but behind Georgia (16.1 percent), Tennessee (16.9 percent) and the U.S. (15.3 percent). After several years of growing faster than the nation, South Carolina is growing a little slower this year, though from a higher per-resident base. Nine months of data can still shift as the Census Bureau revises recent figures.

The Census Bureau publishes industry detail only at the national level, so the sector mix below is for the U.S. as a whole. It is still a useful guide to which service categories are gaining the most new entrants. Professional, scientific and technical services, which includes consultants, agencies, accountants and law practices, had 764,007 applications in 2025, 13.5 percent of the total and up 67.2 percent since 2019. Other services, covering salons, repair shops, pet care and similar businesses, had 483,258, up 47.7 percent.

Health care stands out for quality: 70.3 percent of its 352,046 applications were high-propensity, the highest share of any sector except accommodation and food services, where every application in the published series counts as high-propensity. Real estate had 271,556 applications but only 12.0 percent were high-propensity, which fits a sector dominated by individual agents and small holding companies.

More applications mean more competitors, but mostly small ones. For an established practice, firm or service company, the new entrants are usually one- and two-person operations that compete on price, availability and personal attention, and they show up in search results and maps right next to you. Monvell's marketing and consulting work helps established businesses make their experience visible online, with clear service pages, steady reviews and fast replies, so a longer track record actually shows up where customers are comparing.

• Expect more small competitors in your search results, especially in professional services, personal services and real estate.
• Use what a newer business lacks: reviews, case history, staff depth and reliable response times are hard to copy quickly.
• Watch the hiring market. More likely employers means more competition for front-office and skilled staff, even if most new filings never hire.
• If you are one of the new filers, the first two years decide a lot; booking, follow-up and review systems are cheaper to set up early than to retrofit.

We downloaded the Census Bureau's Business Formation Statistics monthly file (bfs_monthly.csv) and, for South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and the U.S., summed the 12 not seasonally adjusted monthly values of business applications (BA_BA), high-propensity applications (BA_HBA), applications with planned wages (BA_WBA) and projected employer formations within eight quarters (BF_PBF8Q) for each year from 2019 to 2025. Year-to-date 2026 compares January through September in both years. The 2005 to 2018 history and South Carolina's share of U.S. applications use the same file and the same method. Sums of monthly data can differ slightly from annual totals published elsewhere because of revisions and rounding.

Per-resident rates use the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 state population estimates for the matching year from 2020 to 2024, and the 2024 estimate for 2025; no 2019 rate is shown because Vintage 2024 begins in 2020. The U.S. population is the sum of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Industry detail is available only nationally. Applications are assigned to states by the Census Bureau's geocoding of each filing, and one person can file several applications.