Where you'll find them

New York metro area 355 companies

Washington, D.C., and suburbs 300

Los Angeles 244

Atlanta 194

Chicago 189

Boston 175

San Francisco 159

Philadelphia 158

Dallas -- Fort Worth 139

Phoenix 121

* Off the beaten path

Only 62 companies on the Inc. 5000 are not based in a metropolitan area. The largest of those is Crossland Construction in Columbus, Kansas (pop. 3,396), which logged 2007 revenue of $475 million and three-year growth of 122.1%.