The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the demographic characteristics of both employer and nonemployer business owners in the United States. The release, which includes information on sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and other factors, marks the first time estimates of employer firms by owner characteristics are available by industry sector and congressional district.
The data come from two main 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 provide a comprehensive view of business ownership demographics across the country.
According to the Census Bureau, there were 36.4 million U.S. employer and nonemployer businesses in 2023, 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 reports that for reference year 2023 there were about 5.9 million employer firms in the U.S., with women owning 1.4 million (22.9%) and veterans owning 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 represented 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 among businesses.
For nonemployer businesses—those without paid employees—the NES-D shows there were about 30.4 million such entities in 2023 generating $1.8 trillion in receipts nationwide. Women owned approximately 12.9 million (42.3%) of these nonemployer businesses accounting for $423 billion in receipts; veteran-owned nonemployers totaled around 1.4 million (4.5%) bringing in $65 billion.
Further breakdowns indicate that White-owned nonemployer firms made up about three-quarters of all such businesses at roughly 73%, Hispanic-owned accounted for over one-sixth at about 17%, Black or African American-owned comprised more than one-seventh at nearly 14%, Asian-owned represented just under one-tenth at around nine percent, while American Indian or Alaska Native-ownership was just over one percent and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander ownership was less than half a percent.
The NES-D series links administrative records to decennial census data to assign demographic characteristics to business owners within this universe of nonemployer entities—defined as those reporting at least $1,000 annually on federal income tax returns.
“This release also includes business owners’ urban and rural classification, receipt size of firm, and legal form of organization,” according to the Census Bureau statement.
More information on methodology is available through official Census Bureau channels.
