The exact amount is unknown.

You may have wondered, “How many companies are there in the world?” Some people guessed a billion, others guessed a few hundred million. No one knows for sure, though. Why? In the smaller and less known cities around the world (we should call them “villages”), there are neighborhood stores that the local governments may not have counted during the count for the companies their country. There are thousands of villages around the world, therefore there are thousands of tiny companies uncounted for, maybe even millions . Also, there are illegal companies that sell illegal items (that’s why they are illegal companies). When the government staff members walk around counting companies, the illegal companies would hide and not be counted. That is why there are around a few hundred million to a billion companies in the world.