New businesses in Florida — October 2026
Auspector ·
Between September 24 and October 23, 2026, 20,868 Florida business records entered our newly opened businesses section, third among U.S. states, after California and Texas. No single city dominates: Miami had the most (1,178), only 5.6% of the state’s new records, and hair and beauty salons — not restaurants — were the largest of the six sectors we track.
How many new businesses are there in Florida?
20,868 Florida records entered our newly opened businesses section between September 24 and October 23, 2026: 6.8% of all new U.S. records in that window, or about 696 a day if spread evenly — which they are not, because the date is the day a record reached us, not the day a business opened. Our database holds almost as many Florida records as Texas records (1,896,274 against 1,903,604), yet Texas received more new ones (22,325).
Where in Florida? A state without one dominant city
| City | New records | Share of new Florida records | New per 1,000 records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami | 1,178 | 5.6% | 18.4 |
| Orlando | 1,059 | 5.1% | 19.9 |
| Jacksonville | 766 | 3.7% | 12.4 |
| Tampa | 667 | 3.2% | 15.8 |
| Fort Lauderdale | 436 | 2.1% | 15.2 |
| West Palm Beach | 326 | 1.6% | 16.9 |
| Boca Raton | 286 | 1.4% | 12.9 |
| Naples | 271 | 1.3% | 12.1 |
| St. Petersburg | 271 | 1.3% | 12.3 |
| Cape Coral | 225 | 1.1% | 15.3 |
| Hollywood | 219 | 1.0% | 14.1 |
| Miami Beach | 218 | 1.0% | 18.5 |
Miami received 5.6% of the state’s new records; in Texas, Houston alone takes 10.9%. The 12 cities in the table account for 28.4% of new Florida records, against 39.0% for the 12 largest in Texas — a Florida list built city by city misses most of the state. Six of them are in South Florida (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties) and together received 2,663. Further north, Jacksonville holds more records than Orlando in our database (61,640 against 53,215), yet Orlando received more new ones (1,059 against 766). Relative to their size, Orlando (19.9 new per 1,000 records) and Miami Beach (18.5) received the most.
Which sectors are opening in Florida?
| Sector | New records | All records in our database | New per 1,000 records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hair and beauty salons | 577 | 54,622 | 10.6 |
| Restaurants | 492 | 50,378 | 9.8 |
| Real estate agencies | 416 | 74,261 | 5.6 |
| Construction companies | 322 | 36,656 | 8.8 |
| Auto repair shops | 315 | 26,025 | 12.1 |
| Cafés | 154 | 7,446 | 20.7 |
Hair and beauty salons lead with 577, ahead of restaurants (492). Real estate is the other Florida story: with 74,261 records, agencies are the largest of the six sectors in our Florida database, and 416 new ones arrived — against 252 in Texas, which has more new records overall. Cafés are the smallest group (154), yet relative to their size they have the most new records (20.7 per 1,000).
How many list a phone or a website?
| On the record | New records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Phone number | 14,420 | 69.1% |
| Own website (own domain) | 8,955 | 42.9% |
| Website information (own website or platform page) | 9,815 | 47.0% |
| No website information | 11,053 | 53.0% |
Add booking, appointment and other platform pages to own websites and 47.0% of new Florida records carry website information; 11,053 do not. For the whole United States in the same window, the shares were 44.8% (own website) and 50.0% (website information). How agencies work that gap: businesses without a website.
What it means if you sell to new Florida businesses
- Build territories by county. With 28.4% of new records in the 12 largest cities, a city filter leaves most of the flow out; a county filter takes in the municipalities and unincorporated areas inside it.
- Salons and real estate offices. 577 new hair and beauty salon records and 416 new real estate agency records in 30 days — markets for product suppliers, booking and payment tools, fit-out, signage, property photography and insurance.
- Restaurants and cafés. 646 new records together; the worked example is how to find new restaurants and cafés.
How to pull the Florida list
- Location: United States, State: Florida, then County — for example Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach for South Florida, Orange for Orlando, Hillsborough and Pinellas for Tampa Bay, Duval for Jacksonville.
- Section and category: newly opened businesses (the last 30 days, refreshed daily), then the categories you sell to. Categories are not merged: “nail salon” and “hair salon” are separate choices.
- Reach: Phone — has, for a call team (69.1% of new records); Website — none, if you sell websites.
- Watch: check the count (free on every plan), save the search, and new matches arrive by email every day.
Each step, including the export to your CRM: building a lead list from new businesses.
Official figures: business applications in Florida
The U.S. Census Bureau counted 63,415 business applications in Florida for September 2026 (not seasonally adjusted; 58,694 adjusted), 17,867 of them high-propensity — from corporations, from businesses that plan to hire or give a first wages-paid date, or in certain industries (U.S. Census Bureau · Business Formation Statistics, September 2026, released October 14, 2026). That is more than Texas in the same month (54,196), while in our data Texas is ahead — one more reason not to read one series through the other. We neither subtract one from the other nor compute a ratio, because they count different things:
- What is counted. An application asks for an Employer Identification Number for a legal entity that may never open a place customers can visit. Our record is a business location.
- Branches. A chain opening its tenth Florida location adds a record for us and no application.
- When. A filing can come months before an opening. The Census “September 2026” covers the weeks from August 30 to October 3, 2026; our window is September 24 – October 23, 2026.
The longer explanation: newly registered vs newly opened.