Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners

This release also includes business owners’ urban and rural classification, receipt size of firm, legal form of organization (e.g., sole proprietorships and partnerships), and for the first time, tabulation of nonemployer business data by county. (Photo: Courtesy)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

^{Source: 2021 Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics, <www.census.gov/programs-surveys/abs/data/nesd.html>}

Women owned 42.1% (12.0 million) of the nation’s 28.5 million nonemployer businesses (businesses without paid employees) and had $365.2 billion in receipts in 2021, according to the new Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D) series released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Minorities, those classified as any race and ethnic combination other than non-Hispanic and White, owned 37.9% (10.8 million) of nonemployer businesses and had $419.6 billion in receipts. There were a total of 28.5 million nonemployer businesses with $1.5 trillion in receipts in 2021.

The NES-D is an annual series that uses existing administrative records and decennial census data to link demographic characteristics of owners to the universe of nonemployer businesses. The nonemployer universe is comprised of businesses with annual receipts of $1,000 or more and filing federal income tax.

Highlights for nonemployer businesses in 2021:

Hispanic-owned firms accounted for 16.6% (4.7 million) of nonemployer businesses and had $193.9 billion in receipts.
Veteran-owned firms made up about 4.6% (1.3 million) of nonemployer businesses, with $61.7 billion in receipts.
Asian-owned firms accounted for 8.6% (2.5 million) of nonemployer businesses, with receipts of $131.0 billion, the most receipts among businesses owned by minority race groups, excluding the Hispanic ethnic group.
Black or African American-owned firms made up 14.5% (4.1 million) of nonemployer businesses, with receipts of $109.8 billion.
American Indian- or Alaska Native-owned firms accounted for 1.2% (354.0 thousand) of nonemployer businesses, with $12.5 billion in receipts.
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms accounted for 0.3% (90,000) of nonemployer businesses, with $3.4 billion in receipts.

The NES-D is the accompanying dataset to the Annual Business Survey (ABS) on employer businesses (those with paid employees). Combined, the data provide a complete picture of U.S. business owner demographics, including sex, race, ethnicity and veteran status.

This release also includes demographic statistics of all businesses, those with and without employees, combining results from the previously released 2022 ABS (data year 2021) and the 2021 NES-D (data year 2021). Among them:

In 2021, there were 34.4 million U.S. employer and nonemployer businesses, with $45.5 trillion in receipts.
Minorities owned 12.1 million businesses, with $2.3 trillion in receipts.
Women owned 13.3 million businesses, with $2.5 trillion in receipts.
Hispanics owned 5.1 million businesses, with $766.8 billion in receipts.
Veterans owned 1.6 million businesses, with $983.9 billion in receipts.

For more information on the methods used to assign demographic characteristics to nonemployer businesses, refer to the NES-D methodology.

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Levi Gwaltney

Levi Gwaltney is the Editor In Chief of Las Cruces Digest. The Editor makes editorial and posting decisions regarding content published on this site. In most cases, the Editor makes little if any contribution to content published, and takes no credit for the content of republished posts. If available, the source or author of posts is provided at the top of the article.