The United States had 35.7 million employer and nonemployer businesses and $51.7 trillion in receipts in 2022. The business population included 29.8 million nonemployer businesses, while employer-firm ownership and small-business financing data show a diverse and financially pressured sector.
Contents
- U.S. business population and receipts
- Employer ownership and economic footprint
- Nonemployer ownership and demographics
- Sole proprietorship receipts and profits
- Formation, job flows, and survival
- Small-employer challenges and financing
U.S. business population and receipts
The Census Bureau’s Demographic Characteristics of Nonemployer Business Owners reports that the United States had 35.7 million employer and nonemployer businesses in 2022, with $51.7 trillion in receipts. Nonemployer businesses accounted for 29.8 million of those businesses and reported $1.7 trillion in receipts.
The detailed Census 2022 Nonemployer Statistics table records 29,811,495 establishments and $1,726,773,355 thousand in receipts for all sectors. Nonemployer Statistics cover businesses without paid employees that are subject to federal income tax and generally have at least $1,000 in receipts. Census also notes methodological changes and disclosure avoidance for the 2022 data, so the figures should be read in that context.
The employer side is measured on a different reference basis. The 2022 Annual Business Survey estimated approximately 5.9 million U.S. employer firms for reference year 2021. That reference year matters: the survey release date and the business measurement year are not the same.
Together, these figures show why a business count needs a clear definition. Employer firms have paid employees, while nonemployer businesses do not. The populations overlap conceptually within the broader business economy, but their counts, receipts, and survey methods should not be combined into new estimates without a defined methodology.
Employer ownership and economic footprint
For reference year 2021, minority-owned employer firms numbered about 1.2 million, representing 21% of employer firms. Women-owned employer firms numbered about 1.3 million, or 22% of employer firms. Veteran-owned employer firms numbered 304,823, representing 5.2% of employer firms. These figures come from the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey release.
Ownership groups also had substantial measured economic footprints:
- Veteran-owned businesses generated an estimated $922.2 billion in receipts, employed 3.3 million people, and had approximately $179.9 billion in annual payroll.
- Women-owned businesses generated an estimated $2.1 trillion in receipts, employed 10.5 million people, and had approximately $499.4 billion in annual payroll.
- Asian-owned employer businesses were estimated at 642,950, with an estimated $1.0 trillion in receipts.
- Black or African American-owned employer businesses numbered an estimated 161,031, with $183.3 billion in annual receipts, 1.4 million employees, and about $53.6 billion in annual payroll.
About 151,933 Asian-owned businesses, or 24% of the Asian-owned total, operated in accommodation and food services. The Census figures are estimates for reference year 2021, rather than a current-year count, and the categories describe ownership groups that may not be mutually exclusive in every analytical use.
Nonemployer ownership and demographics
The 2022 Census nonemployer release provides a different view of business ownership. Women owned 42.7% of U.S. nonemployer businesses, equivalent to 12.7 million businesses, and those women-owned nonemployer businesses had $411.6 billion in receipts. Veteran-owned firms represented about 4.6% of nonemployer businesses, or 1.4 million firms, and reported $67.7 billion in receipts.
The reported racial and ethnic ownership shares were:
| Ownership group | Share of nonemployer businesses | Number of businesses |
|---|---|---|
| White-owned | 73.3% | 21.9 million |
| Black or African American-owned | 14.9% | 4.4 million |
| Asian-owned | 9.3% | 2.8 million |
| Hispanic-owned | 17.2% | 5.1 million |
These shares are reported by the Census Bureau for 2022. They should not be added together as if they formed one mutually exclusive partition: ownership classifications can overlap, and the source separately reports the categories. The nonemployer data also describe businesses without paid employees, so they are not a direct substitute for employer-firm ownership statistics.
The scale of the nonemployer population is important for small-business guides. A business may generate receipts and file business-related tax information without appearing in employer-firm counts. For readers comparing market size, customer segments, or the reach of entrepreneurship, the legal and employment definition behind each statistic is as important as the headline number.
Sole proprietorship receipts and profits
The IRS Sole Proprietorship Returns, Tax Year 2021 counted about 29.3 million individual income tax returns reporting nonfarm sole proprietorship activity. Nonfarm sole proprietorship business receipts totaled $1,868.0 billion in tax year 2021.
Receipts increased 16.4% from 2020 to 2021, while deductions increased 14.9%. Profits reached $411.3 billion, up 22.0% from 2020. Profits equaled 22.0% of business receipts in 2021, compared with 21.0% in 2020. These are tax-year measures for nonfarm sole proprietorships, not a universal profitability rate for all U.S. businesses.
Industry results varied. Professional, scientific, and technical services generated 24.1% of nonfarm sole proprietorship profits, or $99.1 billion. Transportation and warehousing sole proprietorship profits increased 43.5% to $24.9 billion. Construction accounted for 17.1% of total nonfarm sole proprietorship business receipts.
Wholesale trade recorded the largest percentage increase in sole proprietorship business receipts, 28.8%, reaching $63.9 billion in tax year 2021. Transportation and warehousing had an 11.3% increase in the number of sole proprietorship returns. In the taxi, limousine, and other ride-sharing subsector, returns fell 4.2% while business receipts rose 34.7%.
The contrast between returns and receipts is useful: a sector can have fewer reported returns while its reported receipts rise. That pattern does not by itself establish why the change occurred, but it shows why counts, sales, deductions, and profits should be tracked separately.
Formation, job flows, and survival
The Census Bureau’s November 2025 Business Formation Statistics projected 31,434 employer business formations within four quarters of November 2025 applications, seasonally adjusted. This was a forward-looking estimate for startups with payroll tax liabilities, not a count of startups appearing in the application month. Projected formations within four quarters increased 6.2% from October to November 2025.
The same forecast projected 4,777 formations within four quarters for the Northeast and 13,019 for the South. It projected 42,435 employer business formations within eight quarters of November 2025 applications, up 5.6% from October to November 2025. The eight-quarter figures extend farther into the future than the four-quarter figures and should be treated as forecasts.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Business Employment Dynamics report shows the scale of job movement in the fourth quarter of 2024. Private-sector gross job gains represented 5.8% of employment, while private-sector gross job losses represented 5.7%. Expanding private-sector establishments added 6.1 million jobs, and opening establishments accounted for 1.6 million job gains.
Private-sector establishment births totaled 322,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024 and accounted for 995,000 jobs. These are quarterly flows, so they describe jobs created or lost during a period rather than the total employment level at a single point in time.
Longer-term survival provides another benchmark. BLS reported a five-year survival rate of 57.3% for start-ups born in 2018, measured after the five-year follow-up. A survival rate is not a forecast of any particular new business’s outcome; it is a historical cohort statistic.
Small-employer challenges and financing
The 2025 Report on Employer Firms, based on the 2024 Small Business Credit Survey, covers small employer firms with 1–499 employees. It is a nationwide convenience sample, and its percentages are weighted estimates rather than a census of all U.S. businesses.
Reaching customers or growing sales was cited as an operational challenge by 57% of small employer firms in 2024, up from 53% in 2023. Rising costs of goods, services, and wages were a financial challenge for 75% in the 2024 survey. Paying operating expenses was a challenge for 56%, and uneven cash flow was a challenge for 51%.
Debt and financing needs were also widespread. Twenty-nine percent reported no outstanding debt, while 39% reported more than $100,000 in outstanding debt. Fifty-nine percent sought new financing in the 12 months before the 2024 survey. Among financing applicants, 40% sought less than $50,000.
The stated reasons for seeking financing included meeting operating expenses for 56% of small employer firms and pursuing an expansion or new opportunity for 46%. Thirty-seven percent applied for a loan, line of credit, or merchant cash advance during the prior 12 months.
| Financing result among applicants | Share |
|---|---|
| Received all financing sought | 41% |
| Received some financing sought | 36% |
| Received none of the financing sought | 24% |
The survey also reported that 54% of applicants at small banks were fully approved. Net satisfaction among online-lender applicants fell from 15% in 2023 to 2% in 2024. Because these results come from weighted survey estimates and specified survey periods, they are best used to describe reported experiences and financing conditions, not to predict an individual firm’s approval outcome.