The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data detailing the characteristics of business owners in the United States, covering both employer and nonemployer firms. The data provide insights into the sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and other demographics of business owners.
For the first time, estimates include employer firms by owner characteristics, industry sector, and congressional district. The information is drawn from two sources: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which focuses on businesses with paid employees, and Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which covers businesses without paid employees.
In 2023, there were a total of 36.4 million U.S. businesses—both employer and nonemployer—with combined receipts of $50 trillion. Of these, women owned 14.2 million businesses accounting for $2.8 trillion in receipts, while veterans owned 1.6 million businesses with $1 trillion in receipts.
According to the 2024 ABS report referencing data from 2023, there were about 5.9 million employer firms in the country. Among them, women owned approximately 1.4 million (22.9%) and veterans owned around 261,000 (4.4%).
Demographic breakdowns show that White-owned firms made up 80.6% (4.8 million) of employer businesses with $17 trillion in receipts; Asian-owned firms represented 11.5% (685,000) with $1.2 trillion; Hispanic-owned accounted for 8.4% (496,000) with $730 billion; Black or African American-owned made up 3.4% (201,000) with $249 billion; American Indian or Alaska Native-owned comprised 0.9% (55,000) with $70 billion; and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned 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 innovation and technology trends across different demographic groups.
For nonemployer businesses—which do not have paid employees—the NES-D reports that there were about 30.4 million such enterprises generating $1.8 trillion in receipts in 2023. Women owned roughly 12.9 million (42%) nonemployer businesses bringing in $423 billion; veteran ownership stood at about 1.4 million firms representing $65 billion in receipts.
Further analysis shows that White-owned nonemployer firms made up nearly three-quarters of this group at 73% (22 million), earning a total of $1.3 trillion; Hispanic-owned accounted for almost one-fifth at over five million companies ($244 billion); Black or African American-owned totaled more than four million ($128 billion); Asian-owned reached almost three million ($163 billion); American Indian or Alaska Native-owned stood at just under half a million ($15 billion); while Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned numbered over one hundred thousand ($4 billion).
Both datasets also offer information on urban versus rural location classification as well as business size based on employment or receipts.
The NES-D series links administrative records to census data to assign demographic details to all qualifying nonemployer businesses—defined as those reporting at least $1,000 in annual receipts on federal tax returns.
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