Table of contents
- Business demographics at a glance
- Employer firms by ownership group
- Nonemployer businesses and why they matter
- How the 2023 and 2022 snapshots compare
- What the receipts figures say about scale
- Reading business demographics without overreading them
Business demographics at a glance
Business demographics statistics are useful because they show how ownership, scale, and revenue are distributed across groups rather than treating businesses as one uniform population. The latest figures in this dataset show a market that is both large and uneven, with ownership shares, receipts, and business counts telling different stories depending on whether you look at employer firms or nonemployer firms (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Fast facts
- In 2024 ABS data for reference year 2023, there were approximately 5.9 million U.S. employer firms (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- In 2023 NES-D, there were 30.4 million U.S. nonemployer businesses with $1.8 trillion in receipts (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Women owned 1.4 million employer firms in 2023, equal to 22.9% of employer businesses (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Women owned 12.9 million nonemployer businesses in 2023, equal to 42.3% of the total (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- White-owned employer firms made up 80.6% of employer businesses, or 4.8 million firms, in 2023 (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Hispanic-owned nonemployer businesses accounted for 17.5% of nonemployer firms in 2023, or 5.3 million businesses (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
The key pattern is not just how many firms exist, but how ownership shares shift once you separate employer businesses from nonemployer businesses (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Employer firms by ownership group
Employer firms are the clearest way to see which ownership groups control payroll-bearing businesses with employees. The 2023 employer snapshot in this dataset puts total U.S. employer firms at about 5.9 million, and that total provides the denominator for every ownership share in the section below (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Employer ownership snapshot
| Ownership group | Employer firms | Share of employer businesses | Receipts |
|---|---|---|---|
| White-owned | 4.8 million | 80.6% | $17.0 trillion |
| Asian-owned | 685,000 | 11.5% | $1.2 trillion |
| Hispanic-owned | 496,000 | 8.4% | $730.3 billion |
| Black or African American-owned | 201,000 | 3.4% | $249.0 billion |
| American Indian or Alaska Native-owned | 55,000 | 0.9% | $70.8 billion |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned | 9,000 | 0.2% | $13.1 billion |
| Women-owned | 1.4 million | 22.9% | not stated in this employer snapshot |
| Veteran-owned | 261,000 | 4.4% | not stated in this employer snapshot |
The table makes one thing obvious: ownership share and economic scale do not map one-to-one. White-owned employer firms account for the overwhelming majority of employer businesses, and they also posted the largest receipts total at $17.0 trillion (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). Asian-owned employer firms are much smaller in count than white-owned firms, yet still reached $1.2 trillion in receipts, which makes their revenue concentration stand out relative to their 11.5% ownership share (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Women and veterans in employer firms
Two additional employer ownership groups are especially useful for business demographics analysis because their shares are often tracked separately from race and ethnicity. Women-owned employer firms numbered 1.4 million in 2023, which was 22.9% of employer businesses (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). Veteran-owned employer firms numbered 261,000, or 4.4% of employer businesses (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Those figures matter because they show that a business can be counted in more than one demographic lens, but the dataset still gives a clean ownership-specific view for each category it reports. If you are comparing broad participation rather than only receipts, the women-owned share is one of the largest in the employer data, while the veteran-owned share is much smaller but still substantial in absolute count (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Receipts concentration across employer groups
The receipts column is where the employer data becomes especially informative. White-owned employer firms had $17.0 trillion in receipts, compared with $1.2 trillion for Asian-owned firms, $730.3 billion for Hispanic-owned firms, $249.0 billion for Black or African American-owned firms, $70.8 billion for American Indian or Alaska Native-owned firms, and $13.1 billion for Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
That spread is useful because it reminds readers that business counts alone can hide major differences in commercial scale. A group can represent a smaller slice of firms and still control a meaningful amount of receipts, while a larger slice of firms may be spread across many smaller businesses.
Nonemployer businesses and why they matter
Nonemployer businesses are a different population, and the figures in this dataset show that they are far larger in count than employer firms. For 2023, the dataset reports 30.4 million U.S. nonemployer businesses with $1.8 trillion in receipts (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). That alone changes how you should read business demographics.
Nonemployer ownership snapshot
| Ownership group | Nonemployer businesses | Share of nonemployer businesses | Receipts |
|---|---|---|---|
| White-owned | 22.4 million | 73.6% | $1.3 trillion |
| Hispanic-owned | 5.3 million | 17.5% | $244.2 billion |
| Black or African American-owned | 4.4 million | 14.4% | $128.7 billion |
| Asian-owned | 2.8 million | 9.2% | $163.6 billion |
| American Indian or Alaska Native-owned | 378,000 | 1.2% | $15.5 billion |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned | 102,000 | 0.3% | $4.4 billion |
| Women-owned | 12.9 million | 42.3% | $423.1 billion |
| Veteran-owned | about 1.4 million | 4.5% | $65.7 billion |
The nonemployer table shows a different balance from the employer table. Women-owned nonemployer businesses numbered 12.9 million and made up 42.3% of the total, which is a much larger share than the women-owned employer-firm share of 22.9% in the employer data (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). That tells you women are especially prominent in the nonemployer universe, where solo and very small-scale business activity is more visible.
Hispanic-owned nonemployer businesses also stand out. They accounted for 17.5% of the total, or 5.3 million firms, and generated $244.2 billion in receipts (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). Black or African American-owned nonemployer businesses accounted for 14.4% of the total, or 4.4 million firms, with $128.7 billion in receipts (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
White-owned nonemployer businesses remained the largest group by count and receipts, at 22.4 million firms and $1.3 trillion in receipts (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). Asian-owned nonemployer businesses reached 2.8 million firms with $163.6 billion in receipts, which keeps that group in the middle of the receipts distribution even though its share of total businesses was 9.2% (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Veteran ownership in the nonemployer universe
Veteran-owned nonemployer businesses numbered about 1.4 million in 2023, equal to 4.5% of the total, and they had $65.7 billion in receipts (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). That is a smaller share than women-owned or white-owned nonemployer businesses, but it still represents a large and distinct part of the business landscape.
How the 2023 and 2022 snapshots compare
This dataset also includes 2022 and 2021 reference points, which make it possible to see whether the direction of travel is stable across years. The safest way to read the comparison is to keep the scopes separate: employer firms from ABS data, nonemployer businesses from NES-D, and the specific ownership categories reported in each release.
Year-over-year comparison table
| Category | Earlier snapshot | Later snapshot | Change described in source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women-owned nonemployer businesses | 12.7 million in 2022 | 12.9 million in 2023 | up from 42.7% to 42.3% share as total nonemployer businesses changed (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
| Veteran-owned nonemployer businesses | about 1.4 million in 2022 | about 1.4 million in 2023 | share moved from about 4.6% to 4.5% (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
| White-owned nonemployer businesses | 21.9 million in 2022 | 22.4 million in 2023 | share moved from 73.3% to 73.6% (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
| Black or African American-owned nonemployer businesses | 4.4 million in 2022 | 4.4 million in 2023 | share moved from 14.9% to 14.4% (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
| Asian-owned nonemployer businesses | 2.8 million in 2022 | 2.8 million in 2023 | share moved from 9.3% to 9.2% (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
| American Indian or Alaska Native-owned nonemployer businesses | 361,000 in 2022 | 378,000 in 2023 | share remained at 1.2% (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned nonemployer businesses | 101,000 in 2022 | 102,000 in 2023 | share remained around 0.3% (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners) |
The comparison table is useful because it shows that large ownership patterns tend to move gradually rather than abruptly. Women-owned nonemployer businesses increased from 12.7 million in 2022 to 12.9 million in 2023, while their share slipped slightly because the total pool of nonemployer businesses also changed (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). White-owned nonemployer businesses increased from 21.9 million to 22.4 million, keeping them the largest group by a wide margin in both years (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Where receipts changed more than counts
Receipts can shift even when counts appear stable. Women-owned nonemployer businesses had $411.6 billion in receipts in 2022 and $423.1 billion in 2023, while veteran-owned nonemployer businesses had $67.7 billion in receipts in 2022 and $65.7 billion in 2023 (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners). White-owned nonemployer businesses stayed at roughly $1.3 trillion in receipts across both years (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
For employer businesses, the 2021 and 2020 snapshots reinforce the same basic structure. In 2021 ABS data for reference year 2020, there were approximately 5.9 million employer firms, with 1.15 million minority-owned employer firms, 320,864 veteran-owned employer firms, and around 1.24 million women-owned employer firms (Census Bureau Releases New Data on Minority-Owned, Veteran-Owned and Women-Owned Businesses). In 2022 ABS data for reference year 2021, there were approximately 5.9 million employer firms, with 1.2 million minority-owned employer firms, 304,823 veteran-owned employer firms, and around 1.3 million women-owned employer firms (New Data on Minority-Owned, Veteran-Owned and Women-Owned Businesses).
What the receipts figures say about scale
Receipts are one of the best ways to avoid drawing the wrong conclusion from ownership counts alone. A group with a smaller number of firms can still generate enormous receipts if the businesses are larger on average, while a group with many firms may be more fragmented.
High-level receipts takeaways
- White-owned employer firms had $17.0 trillion in receipts in 2023, the largest total in the employer dataset (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Asian-owned employer firms had $1.2 trillion in receipts in 2023, which is a large total relative to their 11.5% share of employer firms (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Hispanic-owned employer firms had $730.3 billion in receipts in 2023 (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Black or African American-owned employer firms had $249.0 billion in receipts in 2023 (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- White-owned nonemployer businesses had $1.3 trillion in receipts in 2023, the largest nonemployer total in the dataset (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Women-owned nonemployer businesses had $423.1 billion in receipts in 2023, well above the receipts totals for several smaller ownership groups (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
If you are comparing business demographics statistics for content, research, or SEO, the important analytical habit is to pair counts with receipts. Counts tell you participation. Receipts tell you scale. Used together, they explain why one ownership group can dominate firm totals while another can still show meaningful economic footprint.
Reading business demographics without overreading them
The numbers in this dataset are strongest when you use them as a structured snapshot rather than a loose narrative about one group outperforming another. The employer and nonemployer universes are different by design, and the same ownership label can look very different depending on which universe you are reading (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
A few practical reading rules follow directly from the data:
- Compare employer firms with employer firms, and nonemployer businesses with nonemployer businesses, before drawing any cross-population conclusion (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Use the share column to understand representation, but use receipts to understand scale (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Watch for groups like women-owned nonemployer businesses, where the share of total firms is much larger than the employer-firm share, because that often indicates where solo business activity is concentrated (Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
- Treat year-over-year changes carefully when the total number of firms changes at the same time as group counts, because the share can move even if the raw number changes only a little (Census Bureau Releases Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners; Census Bureau Releases New Data About Business Owners).
Business demographics statistics are most valuable when they are read as a map of ownership distribution, not as a single scorecard. That makes them useful for market sizing, ownership analysis, policy research, and any content that needs a grounded view of how business ownership is distributed across groups.