The United States Census Bureau has recently released new information on the demographics of the country’s nonemployer business owners as of 2022. Informed by the Annual Business Survey’s accompanying dataset, Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics, the report provides insights into the characteristics of businesses without paid employees that have annual receipts of at least $1,000 and file federal income tax.
In 2022, there were 29.8 million nonemployer businesses in the United States with receipts totaling $1.7 trillion. Over 4.4 million of these firms were owned by Black Americans, equating to 14.9 percent of all American businesses without employees. Black-owned nonemployer firms had receipts totaling $130.9 billion, which translates to 7.7 percent of all nonemployer receipts in 2022.
In comparison, White Americans owned 21.9 million nonemployer firms in 2022, equating to 73.3 percent of all businesses in the United States without paid employees. These firms collected receipts totaling $1.3 trillion, which translates to 76.5 percent of all nonemployer receipts in 2022.
Notably, the share of Black Americans who own nonemployer businesses is significantly higher than the share who own employer businesses. Earlier this year, the Census Bureau reported that just over 3 percent of all employer businesses in 2022 were owned by Black Americans.
Detailed information about other characteristics of nonemployer businesses in the United States can be found here.
