It’s a Small World

Small business is big business in Orange County. According to data compiled by the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, 69% of county businesses have five or fewer employees, and only 1.3% have more than 100.

Headquarters operations account for 8% of all businesses here, the chamber said, while 19% are branches of more broadly based companies, and 73% are local operations.

According to the chamber, 69% of the businesses are north and west of the Costa Mesa Freeway, 19% are in the Newport Beach-Irvine area, and 12% are south of Irvine.

SIZE OF COMPANIES

1-5 EMPLOYEES 69% 6-10 EMPLOYEES 14.4% 11-25 EMPLOYEES 9.8% 26-50 EMPLOYEES 3.7% 51-100 EMPLOYEES 1.7% 101-250 EMPLOYEES 0.9% 251-500 EMPLOYEES 0.2% MORE THAN 500 EMPLOYEES 0.2%

TYPES OF COMPANIES

There are about 80,000 businesses in the county, broken down by type as follows:

% of Type of Business Companies Retail Trade 21.3 Services 21.0 Finance, Insurance, Real Estate 10.7 Wholesale Trade 10.6 Manufacturing 9.7 Medical, Health 7.5 Contract Construction 6.0 Miscellaneous Services 3.5 Legal 3.0 Transportation, Utilities 2.4 Social Services 1.5 Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing 1.3 Educational 0.7 Non-profit 0.7 Mining 0.1