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The U.S. has 36,207,130 small businesses, or 99.9% of all businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy’s 2026 release. That headline count is broader than the Census Bureau’s count of employer firms: in 2023, the latest year in the Census figures summarized here, there were 5.58 million employer firms with fewer than 500 employees and 30.4 million businesses without paid employees. These statistics describe different populations and years, so they should not be added together or treated as interchangeable.
What do the 2026 small-business statistics measure?
The newest headline snapshot in this guide is the SBA Office of Advocacy’s February 3, 2026 release. Many of its underlying series describe earlier reference periods, while the Census Bureau figures below report 2023 data. A release date is not necessarily the year the data describe.
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Two terms are essential when comparing the counts. A firm is a business organization that may operate one or more locations; an establishment is a single physical business location. Employer firms have paid employees. Nonemployer businesses do not. A firm with several locations may therefore account for multiple establishments.
Census business statistics generally cover domestic private nonfarm businesses, both with and without paid employees. They generally exclude crop and animal production, rail transportation, the Postal Service, funds, trusts and estates, private households, and public administration, including most government activity. Coverage and detail vary by statistical program.
How many U.S. businesses are small?
The SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2026 FAQ says small businesses accounted for 99.9% of U.S. businesses and numbered 36,207,130. In this material, the broad SBA small-business threshold is generally fewer than 500 employees. It is not a universal eligibility rule: federal programs may use industry-specific or otherwise different standards.
The SBA’s broad small-business figure should not be confused with the Census count of employer firms under 500 employees. Census reported 5.58 million such firms in 2023, up from 5.53 million in 2022. The Census figure is specifically a paid-employee firm count; the broader SBA headline count covers a different small-business universe.
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How many people do small businesses employ, and what share of the economy do they represent?
The SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2026 FAQ reports that small businesses employed 62.3 million people, equal to 45.9% of private-sector workers, and paid 38.7% of private-sector payroll. It also attributes 43.5% of GDP to small businesses. These headline measures use their respective series’ reference periods and methodology; the FAQ is the source for interpreting those measures, rather than assuming every figure refers to 2026 activity.
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How many businesses have no paid employees?
The Census Bureau counted 30,427,808 nonemployer establishments in 2023, compared with 29,811,495 in 2022. These are businesses without paid employees, not employer firms. Their nearly $1.8 trillion in receipts in 2023 amounted to 6.4% of GDP.
Nonemployer counts and receipts add important context to the business landscape, but they should remain separate from employer-firm counts. The populations and measures differ: one is a count of businesses without paid employees, while the other counts organizations with paid employees.
How many businesses open and close each year?
The SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2026 FAQ, citing Business Employment Dynamics, reports that 1.3 million establishments opened for the first time in 2023 and about 1.2 million establishments closed permanently that year. Establishment openings and closures are location-level events. A new location is not necessarily a new employer firm, and these totals do not by themselves show the net change in employer firms.
Startups represented 14.2% of establishments in 2023, compared with 12.5% in 2019. This is a share of establishments, not a count of newly formed firms.
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The Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics release dated June 10, 2026 projected 29,493 formations within four quarters from business applications filed in May 2026, seasonally adjusted. This is an expected outcome for an application cohort, not a count of businesses that actually formed in May. It uses a different measure from historical establishment births, so the figures should not be compared as if they were the same series.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is the small-business survival rate?
Across historical establishment cohorts from 1994 through 2022, average survival was 67.7% at two years, 49.2% at five years, 33.9% at ten years, and 25.5% at fifteen years, according to the SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2026 FAQ citing Business Employment Dynamics. These are establishment-survival averages across cohorts, not a forecast for every new business or a guarantee of an individual firm’s prospects.
How have women-owned businesses changed?
The Census Bureau’s 2024 Annual Business Survey reports 2023 data and shows that women-owned employer firms increased from 1,134,549 in 2017 to 1,356,990 in 2023, nearly 20% growth. Over the same period, female veteran-owned employer firms grew 25.7%, and minority women-owned employer firms grew 49.8%. These are employer-firm measures, not counts of all women-owned businesses, including nonemployers.
How can entrepreneurs use these statistics for local or industry decisions?
National totals offer context, but they cannot establish demand, competition, or likely performance in a particular market. For a useful comparison, align the data before drawing conclusions:
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- Unit: compare firms with firms, or establishments with establishments.
- Employment status: separate employers from nonemployers.
- Time: note both the data reference year and publication date.
- Geography: keep national, state, county, metro, and local comparisons distinct.
- Industry: check the NAICS level and any industry exclusions.
- Measure: distinguish counts, receipts, jobs, payroll, survival, and projected formations.
- Business size: check the employment class and definition in that dataset.
The Census Bureau’s About Small Business page and Census Business Builder are free resources for exploring customers, competitors, industries, and potential locations. For state-level comparisons, the SBA’s State Small Business Statistics 2025 dataset, issued January 30, 2026, covers business counts, employment share, jobs created, and ownership by demographic group.
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