Annual Registration Season Sees Increase of 29,000 Corporate Filings in 2023

April 12th, 2023

Atlanta – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a record-breaking Annual Registration Season for the Corporations Division of the Secretary of State’s Office. The Annual Registration Season, which runs from January 1 – April 1, concluded with over 784,000 annual registration filings, marking an increase of more than 29,000 filings over last year’s filing period.

“Georgians are becoming entrepreneurs at a record pace,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “Our office has made Georgia the easiest state to create your business. The Corporations Division makes it easy to start your business. Our Securities Division provides tools to manage your budget. Our Licensing Division is focused on getting your employees qualified to work as quickly as possible. Our entire agency is focused on growing Georgia business.”

Since the beginning of the year, 87,733 new businesses have been filed with the Secretary of State, bringing the total number of active entities to over 1.4M. In March of this year, 28,650 businesses were created, an increase of 4,423 from the 24,227 new businesses filed in February 2023.

Supporting small business and improving financial literacy are part of Secretary Raffensperger’s key initiatives since taking office. Secretary Raffensperger continues to promote small business and entrepreneurship through streamlining Georgia’s Corporations Division, as well as promoting financial literacy through outreach programs such as She Leads.

“Georgia’s economy is spearheaded by the innovation of our small business community,” Raffensperger added. “These strong registration numbers show that Georgians are taking risks and reaping the rewards. We want to be the strongest partner in their journey.”

Secretary Raffensperger has made online registration for new business formation and three-year annual registration the standard for Georgia businesses. Prospective entrepreneurs should visit SOS.GA.GOV for more information on business registration. The Corporations Division offers many resources on business security and protection, economic development, and entrepreneurship as well.

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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #1 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research, and #1 in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.