The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data on the demographics of business owners in the United States, offering a detailed look at both employer and nonemployer businesses. The information includes breakdowns by sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, industry sector, and congressional district.
The data is drawn from two main sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which covers businesses with paid employees, and the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which looks at businesses without paid employees. This marks the first time estimates of employer firms by owner characteristics are available at the industry sector and congressional district levels.
According to the 2024 ABS covering reference year 2023, there were about 5.9 million employer firms in the country. Of these, 1.4 million (22.9%) were owned by women and 261,000 (4.4%) were owned by veterans.
Breakdowns by race show that White-owned firms made up 80.6% (4.8 million) of employer businesses with receipts totaling $17 trillion. Asian-owned firms accounted for 11.5% (685,000) with $1.2 trillion in receipts; Hispanic-owned firms made up 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 in receipts.
The ABS is conducted jointly by the Census Bureau and sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). It provides annual data on research and development for microbusinesses as well as innovation and technology metrics.
The NES-D data for 2023 shows there were about 30.4 million nonemployer businesses—those without paid employees—with total receipts of $1.8 trillion. Women owned approximately 12.9 million (42.3%) of these nonemployer businesses generating $423.1 billion in receipts; veteran-owned nonemployers totaled around 1.4 million (4.5%), bringing in $65.7 billion.
Among nonemployer businesses: White owners represented 73.6% (22.4 million) with $1.3 trillion in receipts; Hispanic owners accounted for 17.5% (5.3 million) with $244.2 billion; Black or African American owners made up 14.4% (4.4 million) with $128.7 billion; Asian owners held 9.2% (2.8 million) with $163.6 billion; American Indian or Alaska Native owners comprised 1.2% (378,000) with $15.5 billion; while Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owners accounted for 0.3% (102,000), earning $4.4 billion.
Both releases also include details on urban versus rural location of business owners as well as firm size based on employment or receipts.
The NES-D uses administrative records and decennial census data to link demographic characteristics to all nonemployer businesses—defined as those filing federal income tax returns showing at least $1,000 in annual receipts.
No news release accompanied this product from the Census Bureau.
