Recognizing Big Drivers of U.S. Economy
National Small Business Week has celebrated the vital contributions of U.S. entrepreneurs and small business owners every May since Congress designated it in 1963. This year, the Small Business Administration (SBA) hosted several events across the country from May 4 to May 10, including a free virtual summit for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners and in-person sessions on a variety of business topics.
How Many Small Businesses Are There in the United States?
The SBA defines a small business as an independent one with fewer than 500 employees. In 2022, there were 5.52 million firms with 1 to 19 employees and 20 to 499 employees, up from 5.38 million firms in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics, one of the agency’s many sources of information about the nation’s small businesses.
The 2022 County Business Patterns shows that 55.7% of all employer establishments – those with at least one paid employee – had fewer than five employees, down from 56.6% in 2021.
In addition to these small employer businesses, there are many self-employed entrepreneurs who run small businesses and contribute to the economy.
According to the 2022 Nonemployer Statistics, there were 29,811,495 businesses with no paid employees, up from 28,477,518 in 2021.
These nonemployer businesses operated in various sectors of the economy like retail, manufacturing and services. Some of these nonemployer businesses were individual proprietorships which contributed to the gig activities in the U.S. economy.
Women-Owned Businesses
Women owned 42.7% (12.7 million) of the nation’s 29.8 million nonemployer businesses (businesses without paid employees) and had $411.6 billion in receipts in 2022, according to the Census Bureau’s Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D) series released this week.
The number of employer businesses owned by women has been on the rise.
There were 1,309,282 women-owned, employer firms in the United States in 2022, according to the 2023 Annual Business Survey (ABS), up from 1,134,549 in 2017.
Of those women-owned employer businesses, the number owned by female veterans and minority women also went up. Minority-owned firms are classified as any race and ethnicity combination other than non-Hispanic and White.
In 2022, 16,295 employer firms were owned by female veterans and 385,119 by minority women. In 2017, according to the 2018 ABS, there were 13,382 businesses owned by female veterans and 275,437 minority women-owned firms.
Recognizing Small Business Week
The Census Bureau recognizes the importance of all small businesses and offers resources and tools to help them.
A Census Bureau webpage provides a one-stop compilation of resources, data tools and free training opportunities for small businesses to highlight their importance to the economy. Among them:
- Census Business Builder: Version 5.9 is a suite of services designed to help entrepreneurs examine their competitors and the best location(s) to start their businesses.
- Small Business Census Website helps businesses identify their customers’ needs.
- Webinars: The Census Bureau May 6 hosted the Building a Better Business Plan Using Free Census Data webinar, designed to teach attendees how to make a data-driven business plan using key economic data and data tools.