Veteran-Owned Businesses Generated About 5.3% of Employer Firm Revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
November 7, 2024
Written by: Rachel Arledge and Lakitquana Leal
Veterans owned about 5.4% or 304,823 of the nation’s 5,681,118 employer businesses with at least one paid employee in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Annual Business Survey (ABS).
The largest share of veteran-owned employer businesses were in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services sector.
Black or African American veterans owned about 5.1% (15,417) of firms — the second most common racial demographic in veteran-owned businesses.
A business is considered veteran-owned if a veteran owns at least 51% of the stock or equity in it. There were also 122,970 firms equally owned by veterans and nonveterans.
This article excludes public firms, nonprofits and firms in which no owner holds at least 10% of the business. The ABS surveys employer businesses and uses their responses to produce data on business ownership.
The comparisons and rankings in this report exclude data that were suppressed for not meeting publication standards. Data pertaining to service-disability status, highest level of education and veteran characteristics are from respondent business owners only and do not represent the total sample.
Veteran-owned businesses generated $922 billion in revenue, about 5.3% of the total $17.4 trillion of all classifiable employer businesses in 2021.
Most (234,045) veteran-owned businesses were in urban areas and 92,768 were equally owned by veterans and nonveterans. Only 46,607 were in rural areas.
Top Sectors for Veteran-Owned Businesses
The Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services had the most veteran-owned businesses (52,167) based on two-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, which accounted for 6.1% of all businesses in this sector.
Retail Trade (16,655), Construction (15,803), and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (14,050) were the top sectors owned equally by veterans and nonveterans.
Race and Ethnicity
In 2021, 92.6% of veteran-owned businesses (282,207) and 84.5% of nonveteran-owned businesses (4,440,456) were White-owned.
Black or African American veterans owned about 5.1% (15,417) of firms — the second most common racial demographic in veteran-owned businesses.
Most veteran-owned businesses (287,837) and those equally owned by veterans and nonveterans (113,072) had non-Hispanic owners. But of all businesses with Hispanic owners, nearly three times more were owned by veterans (16,642) than equally by vets and nonveterans (3,120).
Men and Women Veterans Who Own Businesses
Most veterans who owned businesses were men (287,097) and only 37,794 male-owned businesses were equally veteran- and nonveteran-owned.
About 68.8% (84,584) of equally veteran- and nonveteran-owned businesses were equally male- and female-owned (84,584).
In 2021, male veteran-owned businesses ($901 billion) generated the lion’s share (97.8%) of veteran-owned business revenue.
Equally male- and female-owned businesses accounted for $124 billion or 40.1% of the revenue of equally veteran- and nonveteran-owned firms ($309 billion), and $2.1 billion or 0.2% of the revenue of veteran-owned firms ($922 billion).
Veteran Business Owners and Disabilities
Only 14.9% of respondent veteran business owners reported being service disabled and female veteran business owners made up a bigger share (23.1%) than male veteran business owners (14.5%).
Education
A bachelor’s degree was the most reported highest level of education among veteran business owners (24.2%), followed by a high school diploma or GED (18.9%), and some college but no degree (17.4%).
Beyond a bachelor’s degree, it was more common for veteran business owners to report having a master’s (11.0%) than a doctorate (1.9%) degree and 13.2% said they had a professional degree.
Definitions and more information about confidentiality, and sampling and nonsampling error, for the 2022 Annual Business Survey are available on the ABS Methodology page.
Rachel Arledge is a business analyst and Lakitquana Leal is a survey statistician in the Census Bureau’s Economic Reimbursable Surveys Division.
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