Random Samplings

American Community Survey Takes Our Nation’s Demographic Pulse Each Year

Written by: James Treat, US Census Bureau

In every census between 1940 and 2000, millions of American households received a “long form”, which contained scores of questions on a wide range of demographic, socioeconomic and housing topics.

Following the 2000 Census, the long form was, in effect, split off from the census and turned into the American Community Survey. The rationale was simple: because our nation changes so rapidly, our communities needed this kind of information on a much more frequent basis − annually, rather than once a decade − in order to make informed decisions about where to build roads, construct schools and locate emergency services. And businesses sought these key data much more often than once every 10 years too for the purposes of site selection and marketing.

Yesterday, the Census Bureau released results from the annual ACS, which cover 2010. The information was collected from almost 2 million housing unit interviews across the country.

The survey offers statistics on more than 40 subjects, such as income, health insurance coverage, commuting to work, educational attainment, language spoken at home, ancestry, selected monthly homeowner costs, the foreign-born population, occupation, and military veterans. The numbers are available for not only the nation as a whole and all of our states and congressional districts, but also for counties and cities with total populations of more than 65,000. Statistics for smaller areas will be available later in the year.

Dig deep into this goldmine of numbers and here are a few of the nuggets you will find:

• Average travel time to work was highest for Maryland (31.8 minutes) and then New York (31.3 minutes). North Dakota had the lowest average travel times (16.1) followed by South Dakota (16.8).
• Real median household income decreased between the 2009 ACS and 2010 ACS in 35 states. For 15 states and the District of Columbia, real median household income in the 2010 ACS was not statistically different from that in the 2009 ACS.
• In 2010, 32 percent of the foreign-born population from Latin America were naturalized citizens. Among counties of birth, Jamaica (61 percent) and Cuba (56 percent) had the highest percent naturalized. Mexico (23 percent) and Honduras (21 percent) were among the countries with the lowest percent naturalized.
• In 2010, the percent of individuals 25 and older with at least a bachelor’s degree ranged from 17.5 percent in West Virginia to 39.0 percent in Massachusetts. In six states more than one-third of those 25 and over had a bachelor’s degree: Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia.

In October, the Census Bureau will release a set of ACS estimates covering all areas with populations of 20,000 or more, based on data collected between 2008 and 2010. A third set of ACS estimates, covering the 2006-2010 period, will be released in December, providing information for all geographic areas regardless of size.

Nowhere else will one see data on such a wide array of key attributes about our communities. To dig into the data yourself, visit the American FactFinder.

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Pool of Nonemployer Firms Continues to Shrink

Written by: William G. Bostic Jr., Associate Director for Economic Programs

Firms that do not have paid employees (businesses ranging from small "mom and pop" corner stores to independent contractors to Internet-based mail order houses) have continued to suffer through the troubled economic times felt since 2008. In 2009, the number of nonemployer firms fell to 21.1 million, down 260,000 from 2008 and down more than 600,000 since 2007.

These statistics are from Nonemployer Statistics: 2009, a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau today, and are the only source of information available on the number of nonemployer firms and receipts at the local level. Such firms comprise the majority of U.S. businesses but account for only about 4 percent of total U.S. business receipts. Many of these firms represent self-employed individuals whose earnings are not necessarily their primary source of income.

Although most states experienced an overall decline, three states and the District of Columbia actually gained nonemployer firms between 2008 and 2009. Texas led the way, adding 8,260, followed by Georgia and Louisiana. On the other hand, New York lost nearly 24,000 firms, more than any other state, with Pennsylvania, California and Minnesota also losing many firms.

Across the nation, most industries experienced declines in nonemployer businesses and receipts. Among the few bright spots were the personal care services industry (such as barber shops and beauty salons) and child day care services, which added 72,000 and 27,000 businesses respectively.

These statistics are available at the national, state, county and metropolitan area levels. To see how nonemployer businesses fared in your local area, click here.

Nonemployer Statistics data exclude businesses with paid employees; statistics on employer businesses are covered in 2009 County Business Patterns, which was released at the end of June.

Read the press release.

View the detailed tables.

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U.S. Businesses Continue to Show Sharp Declines

Written by: William G. Bostic Jr., US Census Bureau

For most, it would not come as a surprise to learn that the last couple of years have been a time of economic hardship for our nation. Headlines have depicted a troubling job market and communities have faced the reality of deep budget cuts.

Statistics released recently from the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns reveal a loss of 168,000 businesses between 2008 and 2009 and a decrease of 6 million employees.

This is the only complete source of annual county-level statistics for U.S. business establishments with industry detail. Most of the nation’s economic activity is covered by these statistics, and they are very useful for examining economic change over time.

These losses were universal among states; all states saw decline in employer businesses in 2009, and only Alaska and the District of Columbia gained employees between 2008 and 2009.

Additionally, the statistics presented in County Business Patterns show how each industry sector fared between 2008 and 2009. As another indicator of current economic hardships, 16 of 19 sectors showed declines, led by construction with a 7.8 percent decline in the number of establishments and a 15.3 percent decline in the number of employees.

These detailed statistics are provided at the national, state and county levels. To get a look at the business activity in your county, click here.

These statistics do not include figures for self-employed individuals, employees of private households, railroad employees, agricultural production employees and most government employees.

Watch our archived live video chat with Census Bureau statisticians.

To learn more, visit the Census Bureau Newsroom.

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Half of U.S. Businesses Operated from the Home

Written by: Tom Mesenbourg, Deputy Director, US Census Bureau

When we think of a business, we often conjure up an image of an office park or perhaps a storefront in a strip mall. But in reality, according to new data on firms that responded to the 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO), slightly more than half of U.S. businesses — 51.6 percent — were home-based. Only 6.9 percent of these home-based respondent businesses had $250,000 or more in sales and receipts, while 57.1 percent brought in less than $25,000.

The SBO provides a wealth of national-level data on the characteristics of businesses and their owners. It looks at topics like the age and educational levels of owners, types of customers and workers, and sources of financing for start-up and expansion. For instance, 58.2 percent of women-owned respondent firms were home-based. And the majority of the Hispanic-owned respondent businesses (56.1 percent) were able to conduct transactions in Spanish; the same was true of only 7.4 percent of all U.S. respondent firms.

Another interesting aspect of the SBO data is that capital commitments were modest. For budding entrepreneurs, the initial investment is often rather small, as roughly three in 10 (30.6 percent) respondent firms requiring start-up capital needed less than $5,000. Instances of massive amounts of start-up capital are relatively rare, as only 1.5 percent of these firms required $1 million or more. Believe it or not, one in 10 (10.4 percent) were actually started with a credit card — although they may have also used other sources of capital.

Here are a couple of more notable points. First, the “little guy” is important to most business owners. In 2007, 72.7 percent of the nation’s businesses reported that individual customers accounted for at least 10 percent of their total sales of goods and services. And secondly, the dreams of immigrating to the United States and then starting or acquiring a business have become a reality for many, as 13.6 percent of owners reported they were born outside the United States.

Please visit the Census Bureau Web site for more information on the characteristics of businesses and their owners.

Read the press release.

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Asian-Owned Businesses Bring in Half a Trillion in Revenues

Written by: Tom Mesenbourg, Deputy Director, U.S. Census Bureau

In a week our nation will celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage month, the time of the year when we celebrate the culture, traditions, and history of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

This is also a fitting time to celebrate their contributions as business owners to our nation’s economy.

Two weeks ago we released data from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) highlighting the growing contributions of Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander-owned businesses; today we are releasing data on Asian-owned businesses.

The 2007 SBO data show that Asian-owned businesses continued to be one of the strongest segments of our nation’s economy, growing 40 percent to 1.5 million businesses (more than twice the national rate) between 2002 and 2007 and in 2007 generating $507.6 billion in receipts, employing more than 2.8 million people and supporting payrolls totaling $79.6 billion.

Businesses owned by people of Asian Indian origin accounted for 19.9 percent of Asian-owned businesses, Chinese, 27.3 percent; Filipino, 10.5 percent; Japanese, 7.0 percent; Korean, 12.4 percent; Vietnamese, 14.8 percent; and other Asian, 9.9 percent.

The SBO also provides us with a detailed look at Asian-owned businesses by geographic areas, including states, cities, counties and metropolitan areas.

The Census Bureau website offers more information on Asian-owned businesses and Asian business owners.

View Maps:

http://www2.census.gov/econ/sbo/07/final/maps/asian_map1.pdf
http://www2.census.gov/econ/sbo/07/final/maps/asian_map2.pdf

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Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders Continue to Pursue Entrepreneurial Dreams

New Census Bureau data show that Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders are continuing to become a growing part of our nation’s economy. Between 2002 and 2007, Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander-owned businesses saw a growth of 31 percent in number, while U.S. businesses overall only increased 18 percent between 2002 and 2007. Native Hawaiian-and Other Pacific Islander-owned businesses also saw a 52 percent increase in revenue, while total business receipts for U.S. businesses increased only 33 percent.

This glimpse into the economic activity of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders comes from the Survey of Businesses Owners, which is conducted every five years. This survey is the only regularly collected, comprehensive economic data on Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders and provides an important look at them as entrepreneurs.

Collected for the business year 2007, the data tell how much these businesses earned, how many people they employed, and the kinds of businesses they are in. For example, construction and retail trade accounted for 44 percent of Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander-owned business receipts.

Data show that about 56 percent of all Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander businesses were owned by people of Native Hawaiian origin in 2007. Guamanian- or Chamorro-owned businesses accounted for 10 percent, Samoan-owned businesses for 8.0 percent, and businesses owned by people of Other Pacific Islander descent for 25 percent.

Future data from the survey, to be released in June, will allow you to dig deeper into the characteristics of the owners and their businesses—their age and education, sources of start up capital and more.

More information on Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms for your geographic area is available on the Census Bureau website.

Read the press release.

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American Indian and Alaska Natives as Entrepreneurs

This week, statisticians from the U.S. Census Bureau will be attending the 25th annual Reservation Economic Summit (RES 2011). This conference, headed by the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, provides opportunities for American Indian and indigenous entrepreneurs and tribal leaders to network, receive business training and to connect to other businesses.

Here at the Census Bureau, we measure the economic growth and impact of individually owned American Indian and Alaska Native businesses. These data help organizations like the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development see whether these entrepreneurs are being provided the opportunities to start businesses and grow.

At RES 2011 and today in an audio news conference, the Census Bureau will release the latest information on businesses with American Indian and Alaska Native owners, from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO).

The survey shows that American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses generated $34.4 billion in receipts in 2007, a 28 percent increase from 2002. AIAN Map

What’s exciting about these data are they are only source of population-wide, regularly collected information on businesses owned privately by individual American Indians and Alaska Natives.

These data do not show the full spectrum of economic activity for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Data collected in the 2007 SBO do not include data for tribally owned businesses or businesses owned by Alaskan Native Regional or Village Corporations and their subsidiaries, which are considered to be government rather than individually owned entities.

According to the survey, there were 236,967 individually American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses in 2007, an increase of 18 percent from 2002. These businesses employed 184,416 people, a decrease of 4 percent from 2002. Their payrolls totaled $5.9 billion, an increase of 15 percent.

Construction, retail trade and wholesale trade accounted for 53 percent of American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned business receipts.

The SBO also provides us with a detailed look at American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses by smaller geographic areas, including cities, counties and metro areas.

The Census Bureau website offers more information on American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned businesses in your area.

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March is Women's History Month

The role of women in history was first commemorated in March 1978 as Women's History Week in Sonoma County, California. Congress issued a joint resolution proclaiming a national Women's History Week in 1981, and expanded the celebration to an entire month in 1987. Since then, Congress has designated every March as Women's History Month.

The statistics collected by the U.S. Census Bureau reveal many facts about the changing female population of the United States over time. For example:

• The 1790 Census counted 1.5 million women (and almost 1.6 million men) living in the United States. On October 1 2010, there were 157 million women and 153 million men in the United States (Source: Population estimates).
• The median income of women who worked full time was $37,000 in 2009, compared to $19,000 (adjusting for inflation) in 1955. In comparison, men’s median income was $49,000 in 2009 and almost $30,000 in 1955.
• In 1960, women accounted for 4 percent of the employees in the protective services (such as firefighters and police officers) and 63 percent of education professionals. Today, women account for 22 percent of protective service employees and 69 percent of the education workforce (Source: 2005-2009 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates).
• Prior to the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 7 percent of all high school athletes [PDF 209.5 KB] were girls. In 2000, girls accounted for 42 percent of high school athletes (Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States).
• Between 1997 and 2007, the number of women-owned businesses increased from 5.4 million to 7.8 million. Today women own almost 29 percent of all businesses in the United States.

This Month in Census History: On March 31, 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau installed the UNIVAC I. The UNIVAC I was the first commercial, general-purpose data processing computer. It was used to tabulate part of the 1950 census of population and the 1954 economic census.

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Black-Owned Businesses Grow at Triple the National Rate

Written by: Bill Bostic, Associate Director for Economic Programs

February is Black History Month, a time when our nation celebrates the contributions of people of African-American heritage.

It’s also an appropriate time to acknowledge the growing impact the black community has had on our nation’s economy.

Data released today from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) highlight black-owned businesses and their growing numbers since 2002.

What’s exciting about the new SBO data is that it gives us a complete look at black-owned businesses (including industries and size of business), insight that we have not had since the last statistics were released from the 2002 survey. So what do these new data show us about black-owned businesses?

Between 2002 and 2007, the number of black-owned businesses increased on a rapidly upward track (60 percent), more than triple the national rate (18 percent) to 1.9 million businesses. The data show that, in terms of sheer number, black-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing segments of our economy.

In addition, black-owned businesses’ revenue increased to $137.5 billion (a 55 percent increase) between 2002 and 2007. These businesses employed 921,032 workers in 2007 (an increase of 22 percent from 2002) and their payrolls totaled $23.9 billion (an increase of 36 percent).

According to the data, nearly four in ten black-owned businesses operated in health care and social assistance; and repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services.

The SBO survey does much more than give us a complete picture of black-owned businesses nationally. It also provides us with a detailed look of black-owned businesses by smaller geographic areas, including cities, counties and metro areas.

For more information on black-owned business in your area, click here.

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The World at Your Fingertips

Written by: Ian O'Brien, Branch Chief - Statistical Compendia Branch, Administrative and Customer Services Division

Did you know that Raleigh, N.C., was the fastest-growing large metro area in the last decade?  (View table 21). That only about 5 percent of us take public transportation to work? (View table 1099). Well, thanks to the Statistical Abstract, now you know.

Perennially the federal government’s best-selling publication, the Statistical Abstract has been published yearly since 1878. The 2011 edition, the 130th in the series, has more than 1,400 tables ─ including 65 new ones ─ from sources both government and private.

Think of a key factor in your life and chances are you will find information on it in the Statistical Abstract: health, education, crime, agriculture ─ no matter. If you need a stat, this is the place to turn.

The Abstract provides copious amounts of data on topics that have been in the news ─ mining fatalities, offshore oil drilling, and distracted drivers. It also examines the more offbeat: people injured in accidents involving televisions (table 197), cyberbullying (table 247) and honey bee colonies (table 860).

And when you need data on pretty much any topic that ends up being in the news in the coming year, count on finding it in the Stat Abstract.

For more information, read the press release or visit the 2011 Statistical Abstract website.

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