The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the characteristics of business owners in the United States, covering both employer and nonemployer businesses. The information includes statistics on sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and other demographic factors.
For the first time, estimates are available for employer firms by owner characteristics across industry sectors and congressional districts. The data comes from two sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which examines businesses with paid employees, and Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which focuses on businesses without paid employees.
According to figures for 2023, there were 36.4 million U.S. employer and nonemployer businesses generating $50 trillion in receipts. Of these, women owned 14.2 million businesses with $2.8 trillion in receipts. Veterans owned 1.6 million businesses with $1 trillion in receipts.
The 2024 ABS reports that there were about 5.9 million employer firms in 2023; women owned approximately 1.4 million (22.9%) of these firms while veterans owned about 261,000 (4.4%).
Demographic breakdowns show that White-owned firms made up 80.6% of employer businesses with $17 trillion in receipts; Asian-owned firms accounted for 11.5% with $1.2 trillion; Hispanic-owned firms comprised 8.4% with $730 billion; Black or African American-owned firms represented 3.4% with $249 billion; American Indian or Alaska Native-owned firms made up 0.9% with $70 billion; and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms constituted 0.2% with $13 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 measures research and development among microbusinesses as well as innovation and technology activities.
For nonemployer businesses—those without paid employees—the NES-D reported a total of 30.4 million such entities generating $1.8 trillion in receipts during 2023. Women owned about 12.9 million (42%) of these nonemployer businesses resulting in $423 billion in receipts, while veterans held ownership of roughly 1.4 million (4%) amounting to nearly $66 billion.
Other findings from the NES-D indicate that White-owned nonemployer businesses comprised about three-quarters of this segment at over 22 million entities producing more than $1 trillion in receipts; Hispanic-owned nonemployers numbered over five million; Black or African American owners ran more than four million such enterprises; Asian owners managed nearly three million companies within this category.
Both surveys provide further detail on urban versus rural locations, firm size by employment or revenue, years active, legal form of organization such as sole proprietorships or partnerships, and other attributes.
The NES-D series relies on administrative records along with decennial census data to link business ownership demographics to all qualifying nonemployer operations—defined as those filing federal income tax returns showing at least $1,000 annual revenue.
