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, and veteran status. This release marks the first time that estimates for employer firms by owner characteristics, industry sector, and congressional district have been included.
The data is sourced from two surveys: 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. Together, these sources provide a comprehensive overview of business owner demographics across the country.
According to figures from 2023, there were 36.4 million employer and nonemployer businesses in the United States, generating $50 trillion in receipts. Of these businesses, women owned 14.2 million with $2.8 trillion in receipts, while veterans owned 1.6 million with $1 trillion in receipts.
The 2024 ABS report indicates that there were about 5.9 million employer firms in 2023. Of these, women owned approximately 1.4 million (22.9%), and veterans owned around 261,000 (4.4%).
Breakdowns by race show that White-owned firms made up 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 represented 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 made up 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 conducted jointly by the Census Bureau and sponsored by 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 as well as information about research and development activities among microbusinesses.
For nonemployer businesses—those without paid employees—the NES-D reported that there were about 30.4 million such businesses in 2023 with total receipts of $1.8 trillion.
Women owned nearly half at 12.9 million (42.3%) generating $423 billion in receipts; veteran-owned nonemployers totaled about 1.4 million (4.5%) accounting for $65 billion.
Among nonemployer businesses: White owners comprised about three-quarters at 73% (22 million), Hispanic owners represented roughly one-sixth at over five million enterprises; Black or African American owners operated more than four million such entities; Asian owners ran almost three million; American Indian or Alaska Native ownership was seen among nearly four hundred thousand companies; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander ownership accounted for just over one hundred thousand enterprises.
The NES-D series uses administrative records alongside census data to link demographic characteristics to all nonemployer businesses meeting federal tax filing requirements.
No formal news release accompanied this product update from the Census Bureau.
