There are more businesses registered in Delaware than there are people in Delaware.
Actually, let's make that sentence slightly less insane. Delaware passed 2 million business entities in 2023.
By the end of 2025, the number had reached 2.29 million. Delaware's population is only a little over a million.
So yes, statistically speaking, the First State has about two businesses for every human.
But here is the trick: most of those companies don't actually live there. They don't have employees in Delaware. Their founders may have never visited Delaware.
Their headquarters can be thousands of miles away. So what exactly did all these companies buy?
A surprisingly valuable piece of paper. And an address.
And, perhaps most importantly, a legal system that already knows exactly how to handle billion-dollar arguments between shareholders, boards and executives.
That combination turned a tiny state into one of America's strangest businesses.