The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the demographic characteristics of business owners in the United States, covering both employer and nonemployer businesses. This marks the first time that estimates for employer firms are available by owner characteristics, industry sector, and congressional district.
The data come from two sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which examines businesses with paid employees, and the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which focuses on businesses without paid employees. Together, these sources offer a comprehensive overview of business ownership demographics across the country.
According to the Census Bureau, “In 2023, there were 36.4 million U.S. employer and nonemployer businesses, with $50.0 trillion in receipts.” The data show that women owned 14.2 million of all U.S. businesses, generating $2.8 trillion in receipts. Veterans owned 1.6 million businesses with $1 trillion in receipts.
For employer firms specifically, the 2024 ABS found there were about 5.9 million such businesses in 2023. Of these, “1.4 million (22.9%) were owned by women and 261,000 (4.4%) by veterans,” according to the release.
The ABS also provided breakdowns by race and ethnicity among employer firms:
– White-owned firms comprised 80.6% (4.8 million) of employer businesses with $17 trillion in receipts.
– Asian-owned firms made up 11.5% (685,000) with $1.2 trillion in receipts.
– Hispanic-owned firms accounted for 8.4% (496,000) with $730.3 billion in receipts.
– Black or African American-owned firms represented 3.4% (201,000) with $249 billion in receipts.
– American Indian or Alaska Native-owned firms comprised 0.9% (55,000) with $70.8 billion in receipts.
– Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms made up 0.2% (9,000) with $13.1 billion in receipts.
The ABS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and is conducted jointly with the Census Bureau to provide annual data on economic and demographic characteristics of business owners by sex, ethnicity, race and veteran status.
Data from NES-D showed that there were approximately 30.4 million nonemployer businesses—those without paid employees—in 2023, accounting for $1.8 trillion in receipts nationwide.
Women owned about “12.9 million (42.3%)” of these nonemployer businesses with “$423.1 billion” in receipts; veteran-owned nonemployer businesses numbered around “1.4 million (4.5%)”, bringing in “$65.7 billion” in receipts.
Additional findings regarding nonemployer business ownership included:
– White-owned: 73.6% (22.4 million), $1.3 trillion
– Hispanic-owned: 17.5% (5.3 million), $244 billion
– Black or African American-owned: 14.4% (4 .4 million), $128 .7 billion
– Asian-owned: 9 .2% (2 .8 million), $163 .6 billion
– American Indian or Alaska Native-owned: 1 .2% (378 ,000), $15 .5 billion
– Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander: 0 .3% (102 ,000), $4 .4 billion
Both releases include information on urban/rural classification as well as firm size based on employment and revenue figures.
The NES-D uses administrative records and census data to link demographic information to nonemployer business owners each year.
