Who owns America's businesses?

As America's population has become more diverse, so has ownership of the nation’s businesses. There were more Hispanic-owned businesses overall and more minority-owned businesses in various sectors in 2020 than a decade earlier, according to the Census Bureau’s 2021 Annual Business Survey (ABS). The diversity of business owners mirrors the changing profile of the nation’s population. The 2020 Census found that the population of nearly all race and ethnicity groups in the United States had grown since 2010 with the exception of the White alone population declined during the decade. The ABS includes annual business statistics and demographic characteristics of employer firms such as owners’ race, ethnicity, sex and veteran status. In 2020, there were a total 5,775,258 U.S. firms in all sectors. They employed about 129.3M workers and had total annual payroll of $7.3T. About 20% or 1.2M of these employer-businesses were owned by minorities. They employed about 9.9M employees and had annual payroll of $357.4B. According to the ABS, business ownership among some racial and ethnic groups was concentrated in certain industries. (US Census 01/06/23) Who Owns America’s Businesses? (census.gov)