Statistics about Business Size (including Small Business)
from the U.S. Census Bureau

• In terms of employers and nonemployers
• In terms of employment size of firms
• In terms of employment size of establishments
• In terms of receipts size of firms
• In terms of legal form of organization

Nearly three quarters of all U.S. business firms have no payroll. Most are self-employed persons operating unincorporated businesses, and may or may not be the owner's principal source of income. Because nonemployers account for only about 3 percent of business receipts, they are not included in most business statistics, for example, most reports from the Economic Census.

Table 1. Employers and Nonemployers, 1997

	Firms	Estab- lish- ments	Sales or Receipts ($1,000)
All firms	20,981,527	22,334,478	18,828,948,443
Nonemployers (firms with no payroll)	15,439,609	15,439,609	586,315,756
Employers (firms with payroll)	5,541,918	6,894,869	18,242,632,687

Nonemployer Statistics from the 1997 Economic Census classify nonemployer firms by industry and geographic area (U.S., states, counties, and metropolitan areas.)

Table 2a. Employment Size of Employer Firms, 2001

See the explanatory text for methodology, contact names, and other data available. These data are also available by state and industry. For descriptions of column headings, click on that element in the table.

Employment size	Firms	Estab- lish- ments	Sales or Receipts ($1,000)	Employ- ment	Payroll Annual ($1,000)
Employer firms covered in Statistics of U.S. Business	5,657,774	7,095,302	n/a	115,061,184	3,989,086,323
Firms with no employees (as of March 12)	703,837	705,612	n/a	0	34,289,996
1 to 4 employees	2,697,839	2,703,984	n/a	5,630,017	153,691,559
5 to 9 employees	1,019,105	1,033,719	n/a	6,698,077	178,881,075
10 to 19 employees	616,064	650,345	n/a	8,274,541	236,986,003
20 to 99 employees	518,258	670,477	n/a	20,370,447	624,313,095
100 to 499 employees	85,304	315,856	n/a	16,410,367	539,384,914
500 employees or more	17,367	1,015,309	n/a	57,677,735	2,221,539,681
500 to 999 employees	8,572	102,229	n/a	5,906,266	203,984,554
1,000 to 1,499 employees	2,854	59,451	n/a	3,474,455	120,671,152
1,500 to 2,499 employees	2,307	72,460	n/a	4,419,771	161,281,065
2,500 employees or more	3,634	781,169	n/a	43,877,243	1,735,602,910
2,500 to 4,999 employees	1,770	103,347	n/a	6,063,596	232,662,113
5,000 to 9,999 employees	934	120,158	n/a	6,456,068	255,249,225
10,000 employees or more	930	557,664	n/a	31,357,579	1,247,691,572

Source: Statistics of U.S. Business - See state and industry detail

Table 2b. Employment Size of Employer Firms, 1997

See the explanatory text for methodology, contact names, and other data available. For descriptions of column headings and rows (industries), click on that element in the table.

Employment size	Firms	Estab- lish- ments	Sales or Receipts ($1,000)	Employ- ment	Payroll Annual ($1,000)
Employer firms covered in Statistics of U.S. Business	5,541,918	6,894,869	18,242,632,687	105,299,123	3,047,907,469
No employees (as of March 12)	719,978	721,844	190,570,902	0	29,732,398
1 to 4 employees	2,638,070	2,642,590	848,057,002	5,546,306	128,715,872
5 to 9 employees	1,006,897	1,022,901	797,161,654	6,610,374	150,877,445
10 to19 employees	593,696	639,090	951,050,012	7,962,136	193,804,539
20 to99 employees	487,491	682,580	2,519,756,576	19,109,691	494,617,183
100 to 499 employees	79,707	308,633	2,161,615,554	15,316,863	418,452,574
500 employees or more	16,079	877,231	10,774,420,987	50,753,753	1,631,707,458
2,500 employees or more	3,316	656,945	8,653,855,067	37,950,170	1,249,919,795

Source: 1997 Economic Census and Statistics of U.S. Business

Table 2c. Employment Size of Employer Firms, 1992

See the explanatory text for methodology, contact names, and other data available. For descriptions of column headings and rows (industries), click on that element in the table.

Employment size	Firms	Estab lish- ments	Sales or Receipts ($1,000)	Employ- ment	Payroll Annual ($1,000)
Employer firms covered in Enterprise Statistics (universe smaller than in table 2a)	4,610,829	5,829,983	11,612,349,537	86,856,851	2,124,984,497
No employees (as of March 12)	410,508	411,549	79,649,615	0	12,816,067
1 to 4 employees	2,324,219	2,330,762	633,556,501	4,927,958	95,444,347
5 to 9 employees	887,216	907,210	627,698,797	5,787,367	116,642,815
10 to 19 employees	507,319	563,061	728,012,792	6,761,504	143,982,626
20 to 49 employees	308,186	412,382	1,049,791,410	9,221,309	202,262,868
50 to 99 employees	94,901	187,687	770,730,056	6,485,587	145,129,281
100 to 249 employees	50,934	178,072	901,127,559	7,631,085	169,460,311
250 to 499 employees	14,548	102,505	595,453,951	4,989,846	113,153,603
500 to 999 employees	6,279	84,197	534,738,217	4,321,273	104,031,625
1,000 to 2,499 employees	4,017	107,302	843,316,231	6,138,288	156,153,816
2,500 to 4,999 employees	1,350	93,693	742,253,381	4,660,366	127,664,414
5,000 to 9,999 employees	684	88,758	742,038,259	4,777,935	141,119,621
10,000 employees or more	668	362,805	3,363,982,768	21,154,333	597,123,103

Source: 1992 Economic Census: Enterprise Statistics

1992 Enterprise Statistics (available in pdf) presented these statistics by SIC industry and, separately, by state. (Enterprise Statistics was not funded for 1997.)

1997 Economic Census Establishment and Firm Size reports, present national data classified by the NAICS industry of the parent company.

Statistics of U.S. Businesses is published each year for the U.S., states, and metropolitan areas. Classification is by the employment size of the overall enterprise, but by the location and NAICS industry of the establishment. Customized tabulations are also available.

Table 2d. Employment Size of Employer Firms, 1988 to 2001

See the explanatory text for methodology, contact names, and other data available.

Firms		Number of Firms by Employment Size					Percent of Firms by Employment Size
	Total	under 20	20 to 99	100 to 499	500+		20+	100+	500+
2001	5,657,774	5,036,845	518,258	85,304	17,367		10.97%	1.81%	0.31%
2000	5,652,544	5,035,029	515,977	84,385	17,153		10.92%	1.80%	0.30%
1999	5,607,743	5,007,808	501,848	81,347	16,740		10.70%	1.75%	0.30%
1998	5,579,177	4,988,367	494,357	80,075	16,378		10.59%	1.73%	0.29%
1997	5,541,918	4,958,641	487,491	79,707	16,079		10.52%	1.73%	0.29%
1996	5,478,047	4,909,983	476,312	76,136	15,616		10.37%	1.67%	0.29%
1995	5,369,068	4,807,533	469,869	76,222	15,444		10.46%	1.71%	0.29%
1994	5,276,964	4,736,317	452,383	73,267	14,997		10.25%	1.67%	0.28%
1993	5,193,642	4,661,601	445,900	71,512	14,629		10.24%	1.66%	0.28%
1992	5,095,356	4,572,994	439,084	69,156	14,122		10.25%	1.63%	0.28%
1991	5,051,025	4,528,899	439,811	68,338	13,977		10.34%	1.63%	0.28%
1990	5,073,795	4,535,575	453,732	70,465	14,023		10.61%	1.67%	0.28%
1989	5,021,315	4,493,875	443,959	69,608	13,873		10.50%	1.66%	0.28%
1988	4,954,645	4,444,473	430,640	66,708	12,824		10.30%	1.61%	0.26%
Employment		Employees by Employment Size of Firm					Percent of Employees by Employment Size of Firm
	Total	under 20	20 to 99	100 to 499	500+		20+	100+	500+
2001	115,061,184	20,602,635	20,370,447	16,410,367	57,677,735		82.09%	64.39%	50.13%
2000	114,064,976	20,587,385	20,276,634	16,260,025	56,940,932		81.95%	64.17%	49.92%
1999	110,705,661	20,388,287	19,703,162	15,637,643	54,976,569		81.58%	63.79%	49.66%
1998	108,117,731	20,275,405	19,377,614	15,411,390	53,053,322		81.25%	63.32%	49.07%
1997	105,299,123	20,118,816	19,109,691	15,316,863	50,753,753		80.89%	62.75%	48.20%
1996	102,187,297	19,881,502	18,643,192	14,649,808	49,012,795		80.54%	62.30%	47.96%
1995	100,314,946	19,569,861	18,422,228	14,660,421	47,662,436		80.49%	62.13%	47.51%
1994	96,721,594	19,195,318	17,693,995	14,118,375	45,713,906		80.15%	61.86%	47.26%
1993	94,773,913	19,070,191	17,420,634	13,825,238	44,457,850		79.88%	61.50%	46.91%
1992	92,825,797	18,772,644	17,121,010	13,307,187	43,624,956		79.78%	61.33%	47.00%
1991	92,307,559	18,712,812	17,146,411	13,143,390	43,304,946		79.73%	61.15%	46.91%
1990	93,469,275	18,911,906	17,710,042	13,544,849	43,302,478		79.77%	60.82%	46.33%
1989	91,626,094	18,626,776	17,353,444	13,373,640	42,272,234		79.67%	60.73%	46.14%
1988	87,844,303	18,319,642	16,833,702	12,761,379	39,929,580		79.15%	59.98%	45.45%

Source: Statistics of U.S. Business

A number of sources provide information by employment size of establishment: the annual County Business Patterns and several reports from the 1997 Economic Census, including even statistics by ZIP Code. Most students prefer to define small business in terms of the size of the entire company or firm, not individual establishments. For example, most researchers would prefer to classify a large fast-food chain as a large company rather than as a collection of small establishments.

1997 Economic Census Establishment and Firm Size reports, present national data classified by NAICS industry.

Table 3. Receipt Size of Employer Firms, 1992

See the explanatory text for methodology, contact names, and other data available. For descriptions of column headings and rows (industries), click on that element in the table.

Size of Sales or Receipts	Firms	Estab lish- ments	Sales or Receipts ($1,000)	Employ- ment	Payroll Annual ($1,000)
Employer firms covered in Enterprise Statistics	4,610,829	5,829,983	11,612,349,537	86,856,851	2,124,984,497
$2.5 billion or more	452	272,888	3,409,190,472	15,995,791	503,701,736
$1 to $2.5 billion	645	95,880	1,001,996,667	5,712,005	164,277,481
$500 to $999 million	954	86,633	663,592,400	4,379,102	114,703,254
$250 to $499 million	1,761	91,742	614,554,077	4,156,341	109,581,115
$100 to $249 million	5,028	109,413	770,379,344	5,328,884	143,553,019
$50 to $99.9 million	9,220	82,235	636,090,998	4,149,156	108,682,076
$25 to $49.9 million	19,982	98,858	688,092,320	4,415,069	114,818,519
$10 to $24.9 million	60,999	172,220	931,977,560	6,496,813	164,226,760
$5 to $9.9 million	94,547	178,924	655,222,109	5,507,271	133,733,891
$2.5 to $4.9 million	170,104	249,757	590,544,226	5,943,957	137,432,392
$1 to $2.49 million	439,884	520,426	676,444,529	8,115,675	171,890,513
$500 to $999 thousand	591,183	629,549	413,458,110	5,884,840	111,111,374
$250 to $499 thousand	851,460	869,124	300,945,402	4,966,631	80,629,416
$100 to $249 thousand	1,191,123	1,196,681	197,343,732	3,890,235	49,615,334
Less than $100 thousand	1,173,487	1,175,653	62,517,591	1,915,081	17,027,617

Source: 1992 Economic Census: Enterprise Statistics

1992 Enterprise Statistics (available in pdf) presented these statistics by SIC industry of the parent company. (Enterprise Statistics was not funded for 1997.)

1997 Economic Census Establishment and Firm Size reports, present national data classified by the NAICS industry of the establishment.

The annual Statistics of U.S. Business tabulated receipt size by SIC industry of the establishment and tables are accessible for 1997 at the SBA website. Size detail is much less detail than in the Establishment and Firm Size reports.

Table 4. Employer and Nonemployer Firms by Legal Form of Organization, 1997

Legal Form of Organization	All		Employers			Nonemployers
	Firms	Receipts	Firms	Receipts	Employees	Firms	Receipts
	(thous)	($ bil.)	(thous)	($ bil.)	(thous)	(thous)	($ bil.)
All types of firm	20,822	18,553	5,295	17,908	103,360	15,527	645
C Corporations	2,390	13,892	1,870	13,801	70,982	520	91
Subchapter S Corporations	1,979	2,977	1,517	2,920	21,446	462	57
Partnerships	1,226	622	341	523	3,918	885	98
Individual Proprietorships	15,123	872	1,467	475	5,699	13.655	396
Other, including cooperatives, estates, receiverships, and businesses classified as unknown legal forms of organization.	103	190	99	188	1,315	3	2

Source:  U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997 Economic Census, Company Summary.

Blue highlights the Employer columns that correspond roughly to the coverage of most reports from the 1997 Economic Census, Statistics of U.S. Business, and County Business Patterns. 1997 Economic Census Establishment and Firm Size reports present national data on legal form of organizaton of employer firms classified by the NAICS industry of the parent company.

Yellow highlights the rows that reflected the coverage of the surveys of minority- and women-owned business for 1992 and earlier years. Reports for 1997 cover all forms of organization.

The 1992 Characteristics of Business Owners Survey included national numbers on home-based business, by industry division, size, and minority status of the owner for forms of organization highlighted in yellow above. (The 1992 survey was the last in the CBO series. The 2002 Survey of Business Owners will include data on home-based business, to be published in 2005.)

Persons who work at home is the subject of a Census Brief, based mostly on a 1997 survey, but also citing data from population censuses 1960 to 1990.

Employers and nonemployers

Employment size of firms

Employment size of establishments

Receipts size of firms

Legal form of organization

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