Data Report · Fund Formation Per Capita · Updated July 2026
Where Funds Form Per Capita: Delaware Leads
New York files the most funds in raw numbers, but that mostly tracks population. Normalize against residents and GDP and a different map appears: Delaware forms the most funds per million people. Built by joining 34,531 SEC Form D filings to Google Data Commons population and GDP — every number below is computed, not estimated.
Written by Michael Kaufman · Reviewed against our editorial standards · Updated
Quick Answer
Normalize US fund formation against population and you get a different leaderboard than raw counts suggest. Delaware forms the most new funds per million residents (4783.24), even though New York leads on absolute volume (6,200 filings). 8 smaller states punch well above their population — high per-capita formation on a below-median population base. Figures come from 34,531 SEC Form D filings joined to Google Data Commons population and GDP.
Key Takeaways
- 1.Delaware forms the most new funds per million residents (4783.24) — the highest per-capita fund-formation rate in the country.
- 2.Per-capita and absolute leaders diverge: New York tops raw volume (6,200 filings) but not the per-resident rate.
- 3.8 states punch above their population — a below-median population base with top-tier per-capita formation.
- 4.Geography is business address (where the fund operates), not state of incorporation — domicile is a near-uniform Delaware default.
- 5.Every figure is computed from 34,531 SEC Form D filings joined to Google Data Commons population and GDP — no estimates.
4783.24
new funds per million residents — Delaware leads
The highest per-capita fund-formation rate in the country, July 2024–July 2026
6,200
filings in New York — #1 by absolute volume
Volume and per-capita leaders are not the same state
34,531
new fund filings across the country
Business address of every original Form D filing, 51 states
8
states punch above their population
Below-median population, top-tier per-capita formation — see below
Fund Formation by State, Raw and Normalized
Every US state, showing absolute filings, funds per million residents, and funds per $B of GDP. Per-capita and per-GDP rank often diverge sharply from the raw-volume rank — that gap is the story.
| # | State | Filings | Per 1M residents | Per-capita rank | Per $B GDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | 6,200 | 309.96 | 3 | 3.37 |
| 2 | Washington | 5,503 | 687.79 | 2 | 7.84 |
| 3 | Delaware | 5,070 | 4783.24 | 1 | 59.4 |
| 4 | California | 4,729 | 120.16 | 9 | 1.43 |
| 5 | Texas | 2,560 | 80.73 | 12 | 1.15 |
| 6 | Florida | 1,982 | 84.48 | 10 | 1.47 |
| 7 | Massachusetts | 1,198 | 167.46 | 6 | 1.91 |
| 8 | Connecticut | 963 | 261.08 | 4 | 3.37 |
| 9 | Illinois | 914 | 71.86 | 13 | 1.02 |
| 10 | Pennsylvania | 478 | 36.6 | 18 | 0.6 |
| 11 | Utah | 447 | 126.31 | 8 | 1.91 |
| 12 | Virginia | 424 | 47.75 | 15 | 0.69 |
| 13 | New Jersey | 408 | 42.73 | 17 | 0.6 |
| 14 | Colorado | 405 | 67.36 | 14 | 0.9 |
| 15 | Georgia | 341 | 30.17 | 20 | 0.49 |
| 16 | North Carolina | 315 | 28.13 | 21 | 0.47 |
| 17 | Maryland | 299 | 47.72 | 16 | 0.69 |
| 18 | Ohio | 286 | 24.03 | 24 | 0.4 |
| 19 | Nevada | 276 | 84.09 | 11 | 1.33 |
| 20 | Tennessee | 190 | 25.97 | 22 | 0.43 |
| 21 | Michigan | 170 | 16.79 | 30 | 0.3 |
| 22 | District of Columbia | 145 | 209.04 | 5 | 1 |
| 23 | Minnesota | 134 | 22.98 | 25 | 0.34 |
| 24 | Arizona | 114 | 14.95 | 32 | 0.26 |
| 25 | Wyoming | 88 | 149.47 | 7 | 2.21 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | 85 | 14.23 | 34 | 0.24 |
| 27 | Missouri | 79 | 12.6 | 37 | 0.22 |
| 28 | Oregon | 79 | 18.49 | 27 | 0.3 |
| 29 | South Carolina | 75 | 13.46 | 35 | 0.27 |
| 30 | Indiana | 74 | 10.61 | 40 | 0.18 |
| 31 | Kansas | 57 | 19.15 | 26 | 0.31 |
| 32 | Alabama | 48 | 9.24 | 42 | 0.19 |
| 33 | Oklahoma | 45 | 10.91 | 39 | 0.21 |
| 34 | Iowa | 41 | 12.66 | 36 | 0.2 |
| 35 | Arkansas | 35 | 11.24 | 38 | 0.24 |
| 36 | South Dakota | 34 | 36.36 | 19 | 0.59 |
| 37 | Idaho | 31 | 15.27 | 31 | 0.31 |
| 38 | Rhode Island | 28 | 25.12 | 23 | 0.44 |
| 39 | Louisiana | 26 | 5.63 | 47 | 0.1 |
| 40 | New Hampshire | 24 | 16.96 | 29 | 0.25 |
| 41 | Kentucky | 22 | 4.78 | 48 | 0.1 |
| 42 | Nebraska | 21 | 10.41 | 41 | 0.14 |
| 43 | Montana | 17 | 14.85 | 33 | 0.28 |
| 44 | New Mexico | 16 | 7.53 | 45 | 0.13 |
| 45 | Hawaii | 13 | 9.07 | 43 | 0.14 |
| 46 | Maine | 11 | 7.77 | 44 | 0.14 |
| 47 | Mississippi | 11 | 3.72 | 49 | 0.09 |
| 48 | Vermont | 11 | 17.06 | 28 | 0.3 |
| 49 | North Dakota | 6 | 7.51 | 46 | 0.09 |
| 50 | Alaska | 2 | 2.71 | 50 | 0.04 |
| 51 | West Virginia | 1 | 0.57 | 51 | 0.01 |
States That Punch Above Their Size
These states form far more funds than their population would predict — a below-median population base but a top-tier per-capita formation rate. This is where the normalized view earns its keep: none of them lead on raw volume, but per resident they are the most fund-dense places in the country.
| State | Filings | Per 1M residents | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | 5,070 | 4783.24 | 1,059,952 |
| Connecticut | 963 | 261.08 | 3,688,496 |
| District of Columbia | 145 | 209.04 | 693,645 |
| Wyoming | 88 | 149.47 | 588,753 |
| Utah | 447 | 126.31 | 3,538,904 |
| Nevada | 276 | 84.09 | 3,282,188 |
| South Dakota | 34 | 36.36 | 935,094 |
| Rhode Island | 28 | 25.12 | 1,114,521 |
What This Means
Raw fund-formation counts are a population map wearing a finance costume. The big states file the most funds because they have the most people, the most capital, and the most managers — New York leading the absolute count is not news. The interesting signal is density: how much fund formation a place generates relative to its residents and its economy. That is the number a raw EDGAR pull can never give you, because it requires joining private-filing geography to public population and GDP baselines.
Normalized, the leaderboard reorders. Delaware tops the per-resident rate at 4783.24 funds per million people, and 8 smaller states cluster near the top of the per-capita table despite modest populations. For an emerging manager or an LP mapping where venture activity actually concentrates, per-capita density is a truer signal than the raw count that simply mirrors where the most people already live.
Geography here is the fund’s business address, not its state of incorporation — those are different questions. Nearly every fund incorporates in Delaware regardless of where it operates, which is exactly why we normalize the operating-address cut. For the incorporation side, see our companion report on where VC funds incorporate.
Methodology
Fund-formation source (counts). Public SEC EDGAR Form D original filings (is_amendment = false), collected by VC Beast’s daily automated EDGAR ingest. We count each filing to its business-address state (34,531 filings classified to a US state, July 2024–July 2026). Filings without a US state (foreign or blank address) are excluded from the ranking.
Population and GDP source (baselines). Google Data Commons — a free public knowledge graph aggregating US Census resident population (Count_Person) and BEA nominal state GDP (Amount_EconomicActivity_GrossDomesticProduction_Nominal), latest available year, keyed by state. We never hand-enter these; they are pulled programmatically and, when unavailable, the per-capita and per-GDP columns are left blank rather than estimated.
Business address, not domicile. Geography here is where the fund operates (its filing business address), not state_of_inc — the state of incorporation, which is a near-uniform Delaware default and would collapse this map to a single state. The two questions are separate; this report answers the operating-location one.
Normalization. Funds per million residents = filings ÷ (population ÷ 1,000,000). Funds per $B GDP = filings ÷ (GDP ÷ 1,000,000,000). Ranks are assigned independently on each metric, so a state’s per-capita rank can differ sharply from its raw-volume rank. “Overperformers” are states with below-median population but a top-tier per-capita rate. Corrections: our corrections page.
Use This Data
Free to cite · CC BY 4.0
VC Beast, "Where Funds Form Per Capita: US Fund Formation Normalized by Population and GDP," July 2026, https://vcbeast.com/where-funds-form-per-capita. Data: SEC EDGAR Form D filings (VC Beast) and Google Data Commons (US Census population, BEA state GDP), licensed CC BY 4.0.
The dataset on this page is licensed CC BY 4.0: you are free to republish, chart, quote, and build on it — including commercially — with attribution to VC Beast (for the fund-formation counts) and Google Data Commons (for population and GDP) and a link back to this report.