The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the characteristics of business owners in the United States, including information on sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and other demographics. This release is notable for being the first to provide estimates of employer firms by owner characteristics across industry sectors and congressional districts.
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 covers businesses without paid employees. Together, these datasets offer a comprehensive view of U.S. business ownership.
According to the Census Bureau, there were 36.4 million employer and nonemployer businesses in 2023, generating $50 trillion in receipts. Of these, women owned 14.2 million businesses with $2.8 trillion in receipts, while veterans owned 1.6 million businesses with $1 trillion in receipts.
The 2024 ABS shows that there were about 5.9 million employer firms in 2023. Women owned approximately 1.4 million (22.9%) of these firms, and veterans owned about 261,000 (4.4%).
Demographic breakdowns indicate that White-owned firms comprised 80.6% (4.8 million) of employer businesses with $17 trillion in receipts; Asian-owned firms accounted for 11.5% (685,000) with $1.2 trillion; Hispanic-owned firms made up 8.4% (496,000) with $730 billion; Black or African American-owned firms represented 3.4% (201,000) with $249 billion; American Indian or Alaska Native-owned firms held 0.9% (55,000) with $70 billion; and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms made up 0.2% (9,000) with $13 billion.
The ABS is conducted jointly by the Census Bureau and the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). It collects annual data on economic and demographic characteristics of business owners by sex, ethnicity, race, and veteran status as well as research and development activities among microbusinesses.
The NES-D reported that there were about 30.4 million nonemployer businesses in the U.S., accounting for $1.8 trillion in receipts during 2023. Women owned roughly 12.9 million (42%) of these nonemployer businesses with $423 billion in receipts; veteran-owned nonemployer businesses numbered around 1.4 million (4%) with nearly $66 billion in receipts.
Other findings from NES-D include that White-owned nonemployer firms represented about three-quarters of such businesses at nearly 22 million ($1.3 trillion); Hispanic-owned accounted for over five million ($244 billion); Black or African American-owned totaled more than four million ($129 billion); Asian-owned made up almost three million ($164 billion); American Indian or Alaska Native-owned comprised over a third of a million ($16 billion); and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander-owned exceeded one hundred thousand ($4 billion).
Both surveys also provide data on urban versus rural classification of business owners as well as details on employment size and legal form of organization.
According to the Census Bureau: “No news release is associated with this product.”
