Every physical location with paid employees in Philadelphia ZIP codes.
Covered market #6
Businesses for sale in Philadelphia, PA
29,520 business establishments operate in Philadelphia, and 12,168 of them employ between 5 and 99 people — the range most often bought and sold by individual owners. Healthcare & social assistance leads the local mix with 4,356 firms.
Local market
What the Philadelphia business base looks like
Large enough to run without the owner on site, small enough for an individual buyer. This is where most transactions happen.
The rest are mostly owner-only businesses, which rarely change hands as going concerns.
Largest industries in Philadelphia
- Healthcare & social assistance4,356
- Retail4,244
- Restaurants & accommodation4,004
- Personal & repair services3,667
- Professional & technical services3,240
These five account for 66% of establishments in Philadelphia. A buyer's odds are best where the local base is deepest, and a seller competes with everyone else in the same column.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ZIP Business Patterns 2023. Figures cover the ZIP codes the Postal Service assigns to Philadelphia, which approximates but does not exactly match the city limits. Establishment counts are locations with paid employees; sole proprietors without employees are not included. Latest available year: 2023.
Buying, selling, combining
No single industry carries Philadelphia.
The five largest categories split 19,511 businesses between them fairly evenly, with healthcare and social assistance only 1.0× the size of retail. Demand is spread rather than concentrated.
Buy in Philadelphia
12,168 businesses here employ 5 to 99 people, so the constraint is filtering, not finding. Set a buy box on industry, price and cash flow and let it do the narrowing.
Search this marketSell in Philadelphia
With no dominant industry in Philadelphia, buyers arrive with broader criteria and fewer direct comparisons. A clearly presented business stands out sooner than it would in a concentrated market.
Start an owner listingCombine several into one
Acquirers looking for scale in Philadelphia often cannot buy it in one piece. 4,356 healthcare and social assistance firms is the kind of depth that lets several be combined into one company big enough for a buyer that would not look at any of them alone.
How combinations workNothing here is a listing or an offer. Confidential details stay behind NDA acceptance and the seller's own consent.