The U.S. Census Bureau has published new data detailing the demographic characteristics of both employer and nonemployer business owners in the United States. The release, issued on November 20, 2025, presents information on owner sex, race, ethnicity, veteran status, and more. For the first time, it also provides estimates for employer firms by owner demographics across industry sectors and congressional districts.
The statistics are sourced from two main programs: the Annual Business Survey (ABS), which covers businesses with paid employees, and Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D), which tracks businesses without paid employees. Together, these datasets offer a comprehensive view of business ownership in the country.
In 2023, there were 36.4 million U.S. employer and nonemployer businesses generating $50 trillion in receipts. Of these businesses, women owned 14.2 million with $2.8 trillion in receipts; veterans owned 1.6 million with $1 trillion in receipts.
Data from the ABS for reference year 2023 shows approximately 5.9 million employer firms existed that year—22.9% (1.4 million) were owned by women and 4.4% (261,000) by veterans.
Further breakdowns indicate that White-owned firms made up 80.6% (4.8 million) of all 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 comprised 3.4% (201,000) with $249 billion; American Indian or Alaska Native-owned made up 0.9% (55,000) with $70 billion; Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned represented 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), conducted jointly with the Census Bureau to measure research and development among microbusinesses as well as innovation and technology adoption trends.
According to NES-D data for 2023, there were about 30.4 million nonemployer businesses reporting total receipts of $1.8 trillion nationwide—42% of them women-owned (12.9 million), bringing in $423 billion collectively; veteran ownership was reported at about 1.4 million entities or roughly five percent of this group.
Other highlights include White owners comprising nearly three-quarters of nonemployer businesses at almost 22 million entities generating over a trillion dollars annually; Hispanic owners representing over five million such enterprises earning more than $240 billion; Black or African American owners accounting for more than four million entities taking in nearly $130 billion per year; Asian owners making up almost three million enterprises earning over $160 billion annually.
The NES-D series uses administrative records along with decennial census information to match business owner demographics to all nonemployer companies required to file federal tax returns if they earn at least one thousand dollars per year.
“This release also includes business owners’ urban and rural classification, receipt size of firm, and legal form of organization,” according to the U.S Census Bureau.
No formal news release accompanied this product.
