The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the demographic characteristics of business owners in the United States, including information on sex, race, ethnicity, and veteran status. For the first time, estimates of employer firms by owner characteristics are available by industry sector and congressional district.
This release combines findings from two sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which focuses on businesses with paid employees, and the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which examines businesses without paid employees. Together, these datasets provide a comprehensive overview of business ownership across the country.
According to the data for 2023, there were 36.4 million employer and nonemployer businesses in the U.S., 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 ABS reports that there were about 5.9 million employer firms last year; women owned 1.4 million (22.9%) and veterans owned 261,000 (4.4%). The survey also breaks down ownership by race: White-owned firms accounted for 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 represented 8.4% (496,000) with $730 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 billion; and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms accounted for 0.2% (9,000) with $13 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 among microbusinesses as well as other economic characteristics by demographic groupings.
Data from NES-D show that there were approximately 30.4 million nonemployer businesses in 2023 generating $1.8 trillion in receipts—women owned nearly half at 12.9 million (42%) accounting for $423 billion in receipts while veterans owned about 1.4 million such businesses totaling $65 billion.
Additional breakdowns indicate that White-owned nonemployer businesses constituted about three-quarters of this segment at roughly 22 million ($1.3 trillion); Hispanic-owned made up over five million ($244 billion); Black or African American-owned totaled more than four million ($128 billion); Asian-owned reached nearly three million ($163 billion); American Indian or Alaska Native-owned counted just under four hundred thousand ($15 billion); Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned numbered just over one hundred thousand ($4 billion).
Both releases include further detail on urban versus rural location classifications as well as receipt size and legal structure of organizations such as sole proprietorships or partnerships.
According to officials: “No news release is associated with this product.”
