The sun sets on the Chief John Ross Drawbridge and the skyline of downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, home to the fastest-growing firm in the nation’s leading sector for Inc. 5000 companies.
Photo by Jeremy Poland: Getty Images
In this third and final Snapshot analyzing the state leaders, metro geography and industry alignment of this year’s Inc. 5000, we look at which sectors lead the way by number of high-growth companies. The top three sectors remain unchanged from last year — Business Products & Services; Software; and Advertising, Marketing & PR. But all three showed drops in their numbers.
Below are the top 20 industry sectors by number of Inc. 5000 companies, alongside the number of companies that made the list in 2024. Sectors showing growth are in bold:
Top Industries Represented in the 2025 Inc. 5000 vs. 2024
| Industry | No. of Companies | No. in 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Business Products & Services | 533 | 596 |
| 2. Software | 504 | 538 |
| 3. Advertising, Marketing & PR | 430 | 503 |
| 4. Health Care & Medical | 407 | 321 |
| 5. IT Services | 402 | 419 |
| 6. Financial Services | 362 | 299 |
| 7. Construction | 327 | 322 |
| 8. Consumer Products | 175 | 182 |
| 9. Human Resources | 156 | 186 |
| T10. Manufacturing | 155 | 155 |
| T10. Government Services | 155 | 139 |
| 12. Logistics & Transportation | 139 | 167 |
| 13. Food & Beverage | 137 | 154 |
| 14. Real Estate | 124 | 126 |
| 15. Legal | 120 | 84 |
| 16. Consumer Services | 115 | 104 |
| T17. Retail | 98 | 94 |
| T17. Education | 98 | 87 |
| 19. Security | 84 | 77 |
| 20. Travel & Hospitality | 82 | 71 |
Among the 11 sectors in the top 10 (two tie for 10th), only health care & medical, financial services, construction and government services showed growth in number, with No. 4 Health Care & Medical seeing a 27% increase to 407 firms, 86 more than last year. Financial Services spiked by 21%, adding 63 companies to last year’s total of 299.
Three of the top 10 Inc. 5000 companies overall are health care & medical firms, led by No. 4 Upward Health (Hauppauge, New York), No. 7 Monogram Health (Brentwood, Tennessee) and No. 10 AvevoRx (Greensboro, North Carolina). By state, California leads the way in that sector with 55 firms (13.5% of the national total). Rival Texas lurks in the rear-view mirror with 49 in that sector (13 in Austin alone), followed by Florida with 34 and New York with 26 (15 in New York City). The highest-ranked company in the No. 1 state for this sector is Maximus, based in Santa Monica.
The most dramatic leap upward by percentage comes from the legal sector, which added 36 firms to its cohort (a 43% increase) to reach 120 companies and rank No. 15, just behind real estate and just ahead of the growing profiles of consumer services, retail and education.
If you guessed that personal injury law firms are as well represented here as they are on the billboards of America, you’d be right. But the highest-ranked law firm in the Inc. 5000 is Corona, California-based Reel Fathers Rights, which, as the name suggests, helps fathers navigate family court. “This recognition is a powerful testament to the impact our firm is having on men and fathers across Southern California,” said Mark Reel Jr., founder and CEO, in an August release. California is home to 15 of the 120 law firms on the Inc. 5000 list, trailing Florida and Texas, which have 17 apiece.
Other observations from a stroll through the data:
In the No. 1 sector, Business Products & Services, Texas is the far-and-away leader with 63 firms, around 20 of them in Dallas-Fort Worth and suburbs and another 17 in Austin. Florida is home to 49 firms, one more than California’s 48. Illinois tallies 33 firms in the No. 1 sector, followed by Georgia with 31 and New York with 30.
The highest-ranked companies in the sector are No. 37 Tidalwave Holdings of Chattanooga, Tennessee (a screen printing and e-commerce firm); No. 52 Crisp of Springdale, Arkansas (retail data analysis); and No. 70 Kalorama Group of Washington, D.C., which specializes in advisory work regarding IP addresses. The highest-ranked company in this sector’s No. 1 state is No. 142 Groves & Company, a digital transformation advisory firm located in Austin.
Speaking of the nation’s capital, in the expanding Government Services sector, 66 of the 155 Inc. 5000 firms (43%) are located in Virginia, with 10 of them in Arlington.
The highest-ranked among the 155 companies in this year’s Manufacturing sector is R2P Innovations, based in the Charleston-area community of Ladson, South Carolina, and ranked No. 5 overall on the Inc. 5000. What do they make? Bulletproof and fireproof doors for schools. The plant employs around 260 people. Other top 100 companies in the Manufacturing sector include No. 16 Maverick Power of McKinney, Texas; No. 65 Tomball Controls of Von Ormy, Texas; and No. 69 NutraSky of Alpharetta, Georgia, in the Atlanta metro area.
Texas has 36 construction firms on the list to lead that sector, led by No. 64 Inc. 5000 firm overall Drake Tappe Construction in Austin. California has 31 in the sector, led by No. 6 Inc. 5000 company overall EnergyAid, based in Santa Ana. Florida has 26 firms in the sector.
If you’re looking for fast-growing logistics activity, Texas is also your place, with 16 Inc. 5000 companies in the Logistics & Transportation sector. Florida is just behind with 15, followed by Illinois with 14 companies. The highest-ranked companies in the sector are No. 26 Iberia Express of McHenry, Illinois, and No. 39 ShipDudes of North Bergen, New Jersey. — Adam Bruns
