Business · FF-003
U.S. Small Business Economy
Explore the scale of U.S. small business, its workforce and payroll footprint, and the opening, closing, and job-creation dynamics behind the headline count.
Interactive comparison
Small business at a glance
Switch between economic footprint, establishment dynamics, and job flows.
Economic footprint
Small businesses dominate the business count and employ nearly half of private-sector workers
Employer dynamics
More establishments opened than closed
The SBA state profiles use BLS Business Employment Dynamics for openings, closings, expansions, contractions, and associated job flows.
Employment dynamics
Small businesses contributed most of the net job increase in the profile period
What counts as business data?
Use the right federal dataset for the question
| Dataset | Best for | Current role on this page |
|---|---|---|
| SBA Office of Advocacy | Small-business counts, employment shares, GDP and payroll context | Headline small-business profile |
| Census SUSB | Employer firms, establishments, employment and annual payroll by geography, industry and enterprise size | Underlying annual employer-business framework |
| BLS Business Employment Dynamics | Openings, closings, expansions, contractions and job flows | Business and employment dynamics |
| Economic Census | Five-year benchmark of firms, establishments, employment, payroll and revenue | Deep benchmark / future expansion |
Methodology & sources
About these figures
This page deliberately separates the latest SBA small-business profile from older Census benchmark datasets. The 36.2 million count includes employer and nonemployer small businesses, while Census SUSB covers establishments with paid employees. Those concepts should not be added together or treated as interchangeable.
Small-business source: SBA Office of Advocacy, FAQ 2026 · Employer-business source: Census Statistics of U.S. Businesses · Benchmark source: U.S. Economic Census.
CalculateMeasure refresh: Aug. 22, 2026 · Review cadence: Annual, with source-triggered review when SBA profiles, Census SUSB, or relevant BLS business-dynamics releases update.
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