East Montgomery Times

There were 6,525 business licenses issued in Montgomery County in 2021 in Pennsylvania, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

This is an 11.5 percent increase over the previous year when there were 5,853 licenses issued.

Pennsylvania suffered a surge of unemployment and business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The average annual unemployment rate in the state more than doubled in 2020 to 9.1 percent. This was the highest annual unemployment rate in Pennsylvania since 2003.

County	Issued in 2021	Issued in 2020	Percentage change (%)
Adams	505	421	20%
Allegheny	10,351	9,144	13.2%
Armstrong	282	205	37.6%
Beaver	804	662	21.5%
Bedford	103	64	60.9%
Berks	1,630	1,383	17.9%
Blair	524	463	13.2%
Bradford	183	167	9.6%
Bucks	4,474	3,806	17.6%
Butler	521	437	19.2%
Cambria	481	381	26.2%
Cameron	16	21	-23.8%
Carbon	432	302	43%
Centre	850	725	17.2%
Chester	4,138	3,508	18%
Clarion	84	63	33.3%
Clearfield	182	155	17.4%
Clinton	187	139	34.5%
Columbia	300	286	4.9%
Crawford	406	281	44.5%
Cumberland	2,139	1,644	30.1%
Dauphin	2,782	2,335	19.1%
Delaware	4,367	3,945	10.7%
Elk	103	56	83.9%
Erie	1,460	1,153	26.6%
Fayette	410	400	2.5%
Forest	9	21	-57.1%
Franklin	797	740	7.7%
Fulton	24	29	-17.2%
Greene	129	98	31.6%
Huntingdon	189	145	30.3%
Indiana	174	142	22.5%
Jefferson	253	194	30.4%
Juniata	104	81	28.4%
Lackawanna	1,344	1,076	24.9%
Lancaster	2,169	1,832	18.4%
Lawrence	478	443	7.9%
Lebanon	235	199	18.1%
Lehigh	3,251	2,618	24.2%
Luzerne	1,329	1,080	23.1%
Lycoming	520	455	14.3%
Mckean	71	45	57.8%
Mercer	413	406	1.7%
Mifflin	183	180	1.7%
Monroe	1,235	944	30.8%
Montgomery	6,525	5,853	11.5%
Montour	102	97	5.2%
Northampton	1,525	1,324	15.2%
Northumberland	283	236	19.9%
Perry	182	155	17.4%
Philadelphia	27,938	23,822	17.3%
Pike	140	116	20.7%
Potter	64	63	1.6%
Schuylkill	534	457	16.8%
Snyder	178	166	7.2%
Somerset	151	137	10.2%
Sullivan	32	16	100%
Susquehanna	157	116	35.3%
Tioga	149	110	35.5%
Union	201	188	6.9%
Venango	139	109	27.5%
Warren	63	57	10.5%
Washington	936	807	16%
Wayne	296	232	27.6%
Westmoreland	1,725	1,464	17.8%
Wyoming	51	30	70%
York	2,531	2,158	17.3%