A Timely Portrait of America’s Business Owners from the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs

Cross-post from the U.S. Census Bureau's Director's Blog

I’m pleased to announce the beginning of data collection for the inaugural Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs. This new survey will be a supplement to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners, which is conducted every five years as part of the Economic Census. It represents an exciting public-private partnership between the Census Bureau, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Minority Business Development Agency.

The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs is one way that we are responding to Census Bureau data users’ requests for more timely data. This isn’t the first time we’ve expanded our data collection efforts in order to produce more timely statistics; for instance, the demographic data from the annual American Community Survey used to be collected as part of the long-form census every ten years. Similarly, the new Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs will provide an updated socio-economic portrait of America’s business owners in the years between the Survey of Business Owners.

The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs will provide estimates on firms, receipts, payroll and employment by business owners’ gender, ethnicity, race and veteran status. Results will be available for the U.S., individual states and top 50 metro areas. The survey will also produce annual data on the characteristics of businesses and business owners by demographic category.

Additionally, we are using a rotating module design, which will let us capture information on different relevant business components for each survey year. In the first survey cycle, we will ask about business innovation and research and development activity. We’re working closely with our Advisory Committees to ensure that that we get the most relevant and timely data from business owners each year. As with all of our surveys, we go to great lengths to protect the data we collect; the information we gather from business owners is confidential and never personally identifiable.

Data from the 2014 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs are tentatively scheduled for release in summer 2016. In the meantime, if you’re interested in the demographic makeup of America’s business owners, check out the release of the preliminary 2012 Survey of Business owners statistics. More detailed statistics will be available with the data’s final release in December.