The U.S. Census Bureau has released preliminary firm-level data from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners. Preliminary estimates of business ownership by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status are available now on the Census website; see http://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/. It shows that there were 27.1 million firms in 2007, generating $29.2 trillion in revenue. A summary of the number of firms, sales, and employment by various owner characteristics can be obtained by clicking on the link below (insert the Excel spreadsheet link). For more information on the economic census, see http://www.census.gov/econ/sbo/.
—Dr. Ying Lowrey, Senior Economist