New businesses in California — October 2026
Auspector ·
Between September 27 and October 27, 2026, 29,850 California business records entered our newly opened businesses section — more than any other U.S. state. Los Angeles received 3,807 of them, more than San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose combined, and 61.8% of all new California records carried a phone number.
How many new businesses are there in California?
29,850 California records entered our newly opened businesses section between September 27 and October 27, 2026, about 995 a day if spread evenly. They are not spread evenly: the date is the day a record reached us, not the day the business opened. Texas, the next state, received 22,403. Our database holds 2,511,092 California records in all. The California page of our data section shows the current counts by sector and city.
| State | New records |
|---|---|
| California | 29,850 |
| Texas | 22,403 |
| Florida | 20,803 |
| New York | 12,413 |
| Illinois | 8,040 |
| Ohio | 7,678 |
| New Jersey | 7,630 |
| Georgia | 7,023 |
| Pennsylvania | 6,518 |
| North Carolina | 5,617 |
Which California cities get the most new businesses?
| City | New records | Share of new California records | All records in our database | New per 1,000 records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | 3,807 | 12.8% | 243,766 | 15.6 |
| San Diego | 1,092 | 3.7% | 95,231 | 11.5 |
| San Francisco | 1,028 | 3.4% | 71,538 | 14.4 |
| San Jose | 783 | 2.6% | 44,592 | 17.6 |
| Sacramento | 595 | 2.0% | 33,571 | 17.7 |
| Fresno | 391 | 1.3% | 30,847 | 12.7 |
| Long Beach | 368 | 1.2% | 23,110 | 15.9 |
| Irvine | 361 | 1.2% | 23,751 | 15.2 |
| Oakland | 326 | 1.1% | 25,766 | 12.7 |
| Riverside | 291 | 1.0% | 19,276 | 15.1 |
| Anaheim | 257 | 0.9% | 18,733 | 13.7 |
| Santa Ana | 253 | 0.8% | 16,777 | 15.1 |
Los Angeles leads with 3,807, more than San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose together (2,903). The three Bay Area cities in the table (San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland) received 2,137 together. Irvine, Anaheim and Santa Ana are all in Orange County: 871 new records, one sales territory under three city names. Relative to their size in our database, Sacramento (17.7 new per 1,000 records), the state capital, and San Jose (17.6) received the most, San Diego (11.5) the fewest. The 12 cities account for 32.0% of new California records — the rest are in smaller cities and unincorporated communities, or do not carry a city yet. How the Los Angeles month compares with New York City, Houston and Chicago: new businesses in four U.S. cities.
Which sectors are opening in California?
| Sector | New in California | New in Los Angeles | All California records | New per 1,000 records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 790 | 74 | 85,649 | 9.2 |
| Hair and beauty salons | 589 | 54 | 69,229 | 8.5 |
| Dentists and dental clinics | 583 | 95 | 43,662 | 13.4 |
| Construction companies | 555 | 88 | 47,513 | 11.7 |
| Auto repair shops | 475 | 69 | 43,114 | 11.0 |
| Real estate agencies | 277 | 9 | 82,906 | 3.3 |
| Cafés | 254 | 34 | 14,310 | 17.7 |
| Bakeries and pastry shops | 128 | 11 | 9,337 | 13.7 |
| Clothing stores | 127 | 17 | 20,667 | 6.1 |
| Gyms and fitness studios | 123 | 17 | 11,210 | 11.0 |
| Supermarkets and grocery stores | 101 | 8 | 16,722 | 6.0 |
| Car dealers | 86 | 10 | 8,588 | 10.0 |
| Bars and pubs | 83 | 9 | 6,219 | 13.3 |
| Pharmacies | 28 | 5 | 7,606 | 3.7 |
Restaurants lead with 790; hair and beauty salons (589) and dentists and dental clinics (583) are almost level behind them. Real estate is the opposite case: 82,906 agency records in our California database, almost as many as restaurants (85,649), but only 277 new ones — 3.3 per 1,000 against 9.2 for restaurants. Relative to their size, cafés received the most new records (17.7 per 1,000). In Los Angeles itself the order changes: dentists and dental clinics (95) and construction companies (88) both outnumber restaurants (74), and only 9 of the state’s 277 new real estate agency records are in the city.
How many list a phone or a website?
| On the record | New California records | Share | Share in Los Angeles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone number | 18,451 | 61.8% | 56.2% |
| Own website (own domain) | 11,742 | 39.3% | 31.7% |
| Website information (own website or platform page) | 13,059 | 43.7% | 37.0% |
| No website information | 16,791 | 56.3% | 63.0% |
61.8% of new California records carry a phone number. Counting booking, appointment and other platform pages as well as own domains, 43.7% carry website information, which leaves 16,791 new California records without it. How web designers work that list: businesses without a website.
What it means if you sell to new California businesses
- Build territories by county. With 32.0% of new records in the 12 largest cities, a city filter leaves much of the flow out. A county takes in every city and unincorporated community inside it: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino in the south; Santa Clara, San Francisco and Alameda in the Bay Area; Sacramento and Fresno inland. New records that do not carry a city yet are reached with the state filter alone.
- Clinics and trades. 583 new dental records, 555 construction companies and 475 auto repair shops in 30 days — buyers of equipment, supplies, software, vehicles and insurance. The trade view: new construction companies.
- Food service. Restaurants, cafés and bakeries together: 1,172 new records. Card terminals, food and packaging suppliers and insurance are decided in the opening weeks — merchant services leads from new businesses.
How to pull the California list
- Location: United States, State: California, then a county — or a city when the territory really is one city.
- Section and category: newly opened businesses (the last 30 days, updated daily), then a sector or a narrower category. Categories are each record’s own and are not merged: “cosmetic dentist” and “dental clinic” are separate choices.
- Reach: Phone — has, for a call list; Website — none, for web design prospects.
- Count, open, watch: search and counts are free on every plan; a credit is spent only when you first open a record, and an export counts as an open (pricing). Save the search and new matches arrive by email every day.
From the search to a CSV or XLSX file in your CRM: building a lead list from new businesses.
How this compares with official business applications
The U.S. Census Bureau counts applications for an Employer Identification Number: 534,947 nationally for September 2026, seasonally adjusted, 0.5% more than in August (U.S. Census Bureau · Business Formation Statistics, released October 14, 2026). An application is a filing, not a place: it can be for a holding company or a venture that never opens a door, while a chain’s new California branch is a new record for us and no new application. The two series sit side by side; we never subtract or divide one by the other. What the Census numbers do and do not measure: business applications vs businesses that open.