Advocacy’s most popular publication, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, gathers the most up-to-date statistics about American small businesses in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions about Small Business is a convenient place to find facts about the state of the small business economy, including the following:
- Most businesses are small- 99.9% of American businesses.
- There are 33,185,550 small businesses in the United States.
- Small businesses employ 61.7 million Americans, totaling 46.4% of private sector employees.
- From 1995 to 2021, small businesses created 17.3 million net new jobs, accounting for 62.7% of net jobs created since 1995.
- Small businesses pay 39.4% percent of private sector payroll.
- Small businesses generate 32.6% percent of known export value.
- About 38% of small businesses use specialized software in their business operations.
Advocacy generally defines a small business as an independent business having fewer than 500 employees.
Documents
Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business 2023 (PDF, 1.10 MB)
Our companion piece, the What’s New with Small Business infographic (PDF, 291 KB), is now available.