The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the characteristics of business owners in the United States, covering both employer and nonemployer businesses. The information includes details about sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and other demographic factors.
For the first time, the release provides estimates of employer firms by owner characteristics, industry sector, and congressional district. The data are drawn from two sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which covers businesses with paid employees, and the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which focuses on businesses without paid employees.
According to figures for 2023, there were 36.4 million employer and nonemployer businesses in the country with total receipts amounting to $50 trillion. Of these businesses, women owned 14.2 million with $2.8 trillion in receipts. Veterans owned 1.6 million businesses that generated $1 trillion in receipts.
The 2024 ABS reports that there were about 5.9 million employer firms in 2023; among them, women owned approximately 1.4 million (22.9%) and veterans owned around 261,000 (4.4%).
Breakdowns by race show that White-owned firms represented 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; Hispanic-owned firms accounted for 8.4% (496,000) with $730.3 billion; Black or African American-owned firms comprised 3.4% (201,000) with $249 billion; American Indian or Alaska Native-owned firms represented 0.9% (55,000) with $70.8 billion; and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms accounted for 0.2% (9,000) with $13.1 billion.
The ABS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) and conducted jointly with the Census Bureau to measure research and development for microbusinesses as well as innovation and technology activities.
Data from NES-D show that there were about 30.4 million nonemployer businesses in the U.S., generating $1.8 trillion in receipts during 2023. Women owned roughly 12.9 million nonemployer businesses—42.3% of all such entities—with combined receipts of $423 billion; veteran ownership was at about 1.4 million nonemployer businesses or approximately 4.5%, accounting for $65 billion in receipts.
Other notable findings include: White-owned nonemployer firms made up nearly three-quarters of this segment at 73% (22 million), Hispanic-owned accounted for almost one-fifth at about five million or nearly one-fifth of all such entities; Black or African American-owned represented more than four million companies or just over one-seventh; Asian ownership stood at nearly three million; American Indian or Alaska Native at close to four hundred thousand; while Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander was just over one hundred thousand.
Both releases also provide additional demographic breakdowns by urban/rural classification as well as firm size measures such as employment size and receipt size.
According to a statement from the Census Bureau: “No news release is associated with this product.”
