Census’ New Annual Total Business Demographics Program: 

A Hybrid-Data Approach

Aneta Erdie, Assistant Division Chief for Business Owners and Governments Programs, U.S. Census Bureau 

Adela Luque, Senior Economist, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau

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FCSM Conference

October 25, 2022

The Annual Business Survey (ABS) is sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) 

within the National Science Foundation. The Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics (NES-D) is partially sponsored by 

the Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration (SBA). 

The Census Bureau’s Disclosure Review Board has approved all statistics and estimates presented today for public release under approval numbers 

CBDRB-FY23-ESMD010-004, CBDRB-FY20-053 and CBDRB-FY20-390. 
The Annualization of Census Bureaus’ Business Demographics Statistics

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Nonemployer Statistics by 

Demographics (NES-D)

Administrative Records (AR) - based

Annual Business Survey (ABS)

(Employers)

Survey-based

Annual Total Business Demographics Program

Synchronization of employers & nonemployers

Legacy Survey of Business Owners (SBO) - Every 5 yrs.

(Nonemployers& Employers Demographics)

PRIOR STATE

CURRENT STATE

FUTURE STATE

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About (1/2)

ABS

• Annual survey of employer firms

• Content: Provides counts, receipts & 

economic information for employer 

businesses by sex, ethnicity, race, & veteran 

status of business owners at:

o Geography levels

• US, state, metropolitan statistical area (MSA) (all years)

• County, economic place (select years)

o NAICS levels

• 2-3 digit NAICS (all years)

• 2-6 digit NAICS (select years)

o Employment and receipt-size class of firm

o Cross-tabulations

NES-D

• Not a survey -- Annual series created only w/ 

administrative records (AR) & Census data

• Content: Provides counts & receipts for 

universe* of nonemployer businesses by sex, 

ethnicity, race, & veteran status of business 

owners at:

o Geography levels (currently)

• US, state, metropolitan statistical area (MSA)

o NAICS levels (currently)

• 2-3 digit NAICS

o Receipt-size class 

o Legal form of organization (LFO)

o Cross-tabulations

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*Currently not including nonemployer C-corporations (only 2% of nonemployers)
About (2/2)

ABS

• Content (cont’d): Measures various 

other topics w/ rotating content 

modules:

o Research and Development

o Innovation 

o Technology

o Financing

• First release was in 12/2019 with 2017 

reference year (2018 ABS)

• Microdata available? Yes

NES-D

• Content (cont’d): Provides other data 

for nonemployers:

o Age of Owner

o Place of Birth

o U.S. Citizenship

o Plans to add non-demographic characteristics 

(e.g., Does nonemployer also work for a wage, 

does he/she hire contractors, marital status)

• First release was in 2020 with 

reference year 2017

• Microdata available? Forthcoming

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ABS Content by Survey Year

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2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

• Company 

Information

• Owner 

Characteristics

• Detailed Innovation

• R&D (1-9 emp)

• Digital Technology

• Financing

• Company 

Information

• Owner 

Characteristics

• R&D (1-9 emp and 

nonprofit 

organizations)

• Innovation, Digital 

Technology 

• Design and 

Intellectual Property

• Globalization

• Coronavirus 

Pandemic (R&D & 

Financing)

• Company 

Information

• Owner 

Characteristics

• Reduced Innovation

• R&D (1-9 emp)

• Automation 

Technology

• Company 

Information

• Owner 

Characteristics

• Detailed Innovation

• R&D (1-9 emp)

• Globalization

• Company 

Information

• Owner 

Characteristics

• R&D (1-9 emp and nonprofit 

organizations)

• Digital Technology, 

Operations and 

Innovation

• Financing

• Management 

Practices

• Coronavirus 

Pandemic (R&D & 

Financing)
Who are Nonemployers?

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Sources: Business Formation Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau.

•Nonemployers: businesses w/ no paid 

employment, subject to federal income taxes, 

& w/ annual receipts of $1,000 or more

•As of 2018, there were approximately 26 

million nonemployers accounting for about 83 

percent of all U.S. businesses but only about 3 

percent of receipts

• Approximately 87 percent of nonemployers are sole 

proprietors (i.e., businesses with only 1 owner, usually 

thought-of as self-employed persons)

•Nonemployer growth outpacing that of 

employers

• From 2014 to 2018, number of nonemployers grew by 

approximately 11 percent and employer firms by 

approximately 3.5 percent

•Unprecedented increase in business 

applications during pandemic (see graph) – will 

they become nonemployer businesses?

Employer Identification Number (EIN) Applications
How is NES-D created? 

• Nonemployer universe identified & extracted from Business Register*

• Unique anonymized person identifiers called Protected Identification 

Keys (PIKs) facilitate linkage of records across data sources 

• Source of PIKs/Owner identification

• Sole proprietors –Tax form 1040

• Partnerships & S-corporations – Schedule K-1 (Forms 1065 & 1022S)

• Owners of U.S. nonemployerC-corporations cannot be identified with tax or 

AR data (only 2% of nonemployers& 4% of receipts)

• Evaluating feasibility of imputation

• Data sources: BR, Decennial, American Community Survey, SSA 

Numident, DVA AR data

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*The BR is a comprehensive database of all U.S. employer and nonemployer business establishments containing 

business name, identifier, address, industry classification, legal form of organization, receipts, and employment and 

payroll (these last two apply only to employer firms).
How well does NES-D cover nonemployer universe?

• PIK information available for approximately 99 percent of nonemployerfirms in 

each year – not including C-corps

• Availability of sex, age, place of birth & citizenship for approximately 98-99 

percent of owners (w/ PIKs)

• Availability of race and ethnicity data for approximately 90-95 percent of owners 

(w/ PIKs)

• Approximately 90-95 percent of owners (w/ PIKs) are not missing any 

demographics

• Only about 1 percent are missing 3 or more demographics

• Missing demographics are imputed

⇒In context: Nonemployers non-response rate in SBO approx. 50%

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NES-D - Some challenges

• Owners of U.S. nonemployerC-corporations cannot be identified 

with tax or AR data (only 2% of nonemployers)

• Evaluating feasibility of imputation

• Veteran status 

• Conceptual differences between what the ABS view as a veteran and VA’s 

definition: VA concept is narrower

• Potential for supplementary AR source of military service data

• Equally-owned category for sole proprietorships (1 owner) possible in 

survey but not in AR sources

• Shocks (e.g., pandemic) may delay/impact AR (e.g., tax filings)

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NES-D Next Steps

• Increase level of detail for nonemployers: 

• Geo detail: Potentially down to county level in future releases as disclosure-avoidance rules 

allow

• Industry detail: Potentially down to 6-digit NAICS in future releases as disclosure-avoidance 

rules allow

• Shorten dissemination lag from 3 to 2 years –but pandemic getting in the way

• Additional characteristics for nonemployers, including:

• Household (e.g., marital status)

• Related to gig-economy (e.g., does nonemployer also work for a wage? Does nonemployer

use contractors?)

• Firm age

• Transitions to employer status

• Patenting activity, exporter/importer status

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Illustration - 2018 Hybrid-data Total Business Demographics

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10.2%

2.6%

18.3%

15.0%

10.5%

89.8%

97.4%

81.7%

85.0%

89.5%

FEMALE-WHITE

FEMALE-BLACK

FEMALE-AIAN

FEMALE-ASIAN

FEMALE-NHPI

Black-female firms are overwhelmingly 

nonemployers

Employers firms Nonemployers firms

9.5%

19.6%

90.5%

80.4%

FEMALE OWNED

MALE OWNED

A higher share of female-owned firms 

are nonemployers

Employer firms Nonemployer firms

Sources: 2018 NES-D and 2019 ABS (2018 reference year)

Back
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Illustration – 2018 ABS 

Technology Use by Sex of Business Owners 

Robotics usage 45% lower for femaleowned businesses

Most commonly adopted technologies 

(i.e., cloud and specialized software) 

have similar adoption rates among 

female- and male-owned firms

Robotics

0.55

AI

0.86

Spec. Equip.

0.78

Cloud

1.04 Spec. Soft.

0.99

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

Ratio of female/male usage rates

Female/Male Ratio (Usage Rates)

*Note: bubble size is proportional to overall usage rate of each technology

Source: 2018 ABS (2017 reference year)
How Stakeholders Use Our Data

• Stakeholders use data to:

• Assess business assistance needs 

• Allocate available program resources

• Analyze long-term economic and demographic shifts

• Stakeholder resources using ABS/NES-D data include:

• National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) - 2021 Annual Report (nwbc.gov)

• Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) - All Minority-Owned Firms 

Fact Sheet 0728021_11pm Hires.pdf (mbda.gov)

• Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy (SBA) - What's New With 

Small Business, 2021 (sba.gov)

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Thank you!

Aneta.Erdie@census.gov

Adela.Luque@census.gov

ABS and NES-D tables are available at: 

https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/abs/data.html

Additional ABS tables are available at: 

https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyabs
Nonemployer Demographics – Past & Present

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Previously:

Collected as Part of Survey of 

Business Owners (SBO)

•Survey (2012) – sample size 

approx. 800,000 nonemployer & 

940,000 employer firms

•High respondent burden

•Low response rate (50% for 

nonemployers) => high 

imputation rate & costs

•Every five years

•3-year dissemination lag from 

reference year

Currently: 

NES-D -- AR & Census Data

•Not a survey - Nonemployer universe

(approx. 26 mill. as of 2018

•No additional respondent burden

•Low imputation rates & costs 

=> In 2017, imputation rates between <10% 

for race and 1% for sex and age

•Annual – higher frequency

•Will shorten dissemination lag to 2 years 

(from reference year) – more timely

•Ability to add characteristics from AR to 

augment/enrich the data product w/ 

relative ease & low costs, but some loss 

of content
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NES-D Data Sources

Variables Data Sources

Receipts, industry, geographic 

location, legal form of organization Nonemployers database from Business Register

Race 

Hispanic origin

Sex 

Age of owner

Place of birth

U.S. Citizenship status

Decennial Census Data, American Community Survey (ACS), & 

Numident (from Social Security Administration)

Veteran-status Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) AR data (USVETS).

Also exploring Department of Defense data.

back
How is NES-D created? (2/2)

• To obtain firm-level demographics:

• Methodology consistent with employer side (ABS)

• Exclude firms where top owner owns < 10% of firm => demographically 

unclassifiable firms

• Top 4 (person) owners (>95% of NE firms have 4 or fewer owners)

• Firm is assigned to the demographic group holding majority ownership (>50%)

• Equally-owned category possible when demographic characteristic is binary (e.g., female, male, 

female-male equally owned)

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*The BR is a comprehensive database of all U.S. employer and nonemployer business 

establishments containing business name, identifier, address, industry classification, legal form of 

organization, receipts, and employment and payroll (these last two apply only to employer firms).
NonemployerUniverse

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2018 Nonemployer Universe: 26,485,532

Businesses w/ no paid employment, subject to 

federal income taxes, & w/ annual receipts of $1,000 

or more ($1 or more for Construction sector)

Sole Proprietorships 

(1 owner): 

22,933,726 (87%)

(63% of receipts)

Partnerships 

(>1 owner): 

1,950,997 (7%)

(22% of receipts)

S-corporations 

(>=1 owner): 

1,199,052 (5%)

(11% of receipts)

C-corporations 

(>= 1 owner)

401,757 (2%)

(4% of receipts)

Source: 2018 Nonemployer Statistics (NES), U.S. Census Bureau.
NonemployerUniverse

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Nonemployer Universe: 

Businesses w/ no paid employment, subject to federal income taxes, & w/ 

annual receipts of $1,000 or more ($1 or more for Construction sector)

Sole Proprietorships 

(1 owner)

1040 filings

PIK

Partnerships 

(>1 owner)

Tax Schedule K1

(Firm-PIK pairs)

S-corporations 

(>=1 owner)

Tax Schedule K1

(Firm-PIK pairs)

C-corporations 

(>= 1 owner)

n/a

Source: 2018 Nonemployer Statistics (NES), U.S. Census Bureau.

Source 

of PIKs
82.9

17.1

Employer

receipts

Nonemployer receipts

10.8

89.2

Employer

firms

Nonemployer

firms

MinorityOwned

Source: data.census.gov 20

Total Number of Firms Total Receipts ($1,000)

Minority-Owned 9,709,323 1,787,710,036 

Women-Owned 12,001,410 2,076,519,555 

Hispanic-Owned 4,228,625 599,527,934 

2018 Hybrid-Data: 

Total Business Demographics

76.0

24.0

Employer

receipts

Nonemployer

receipts

7.8

92.2

Employer

firms

Nonemployer

firms

HispanicOwned

85.6

14.4

Employer

receipts

Nonemployer

receipts

9.5

90.5

Employer

firms

Nonemployer

firms

WomenOwned
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Technology Use by Ethnicity of Business Owners

Technology usage rates relatively similar 

across ethnicities

Robotics

0.88

AI

1.14

Spec. Equip.

1.07

Cloud

0.91 Spec. Soft.

0.90

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

Ratio of Hispanic/non-Hispanic usage rates

Hispanic/non-Hispanic Ratio (Usage Rates)

*Note: bubble size is proportional to overall usage rate of each technology
Illustration of Business Characteristics Results

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Robotics

AI

Spec. Equip.

Cloud

Spec. Soft.

Overall Technology Usage Rates

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How Stakeholders use NES-D

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Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 NES-D and American Community Survey.
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Illustration of ABS Demo Results