Small Business Facts

Small businesses are important to rural counties. They operate 84.8% of establishments and employ 54.3% of workers. However, rural employment by small businesses has grown more slowly than total employment. Between 2012 and 2019, rural…

Advocacy has released its newest infographic spotlighting Black-owned businesses. Black business owners own over three million businesses and employ almost 1.2 million people. The infographic uses the most recent Census Bureau data to show…

While there are multiple reasons to own a small business, most firm owners cite wanting to be their own boss and making more money as important reasons for owning their own business. Self-employment is mostly driven by opportunity, with…

In 2019, small businesses with 10–499 employees performed $70.6 billion worth of R&D work and employed over 500,000 R&D workers. Among businesses engaged in R&D, small businesses spend a much higher percentage of their sales on…

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the tightening labor market is disproportionately impacting smaller businesses. 23.4 percent of small businesses cited labor needs in August 2020, which increased to over 40 percent at…

Despite losing 9.1 million jobs in the first two quarters of 2020, small businesses job growth rebounded swiftly following the COVID-19 recession. In the four quarters following, small businesses have gained 5.5 million jobs, making up for…

Equally-owned businesses, which are businesses half owned by men and half owned by women, totaled 860,754 employers in 2018. These businesses employed 7,970,121 workers, generated $1.3 trillion in annual sales receipt, and paid $280…

On average, the self-employed are wealthier than the non-self employed and are significantly wealthier than workers and retirees.  According to 2019 data from the Federal Reserve,  business ownership is an important source of family …

As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, small businesses are struggling to obtain the goods they need to operate, impacting their recovery. 37.2% of small businesses reported having domestic supplier delays in the second week of June 2021 and…

There were roughly 12 million women-owned businesses in 2017, with $388.1 billion in payroll and 10.1 million employees. However, women remain underrepresented in small business ownership. For more information on women small business…