Office of Advocacy
2002 State Small Business Profile: UNITED STATES

The events of 2001 posed critical challenges to the
United States. Nevertheless, the economic health of
United States benefited from its small businesses (those
with fewer than 500 employees). Small businesses are
an important source of new jobs in the nation. The
small business sector also provides opportunities for
women and minorities and is a continual source of
innovation and invention. These qualities proved to be
economically beneficial to United States last year.
Number of Businesses. The number of employer
businesses in 2001 decreased by 1.4 percent, and the
number of self-employed individuals decreased by an
estimated 0.8 percent. Employer businesses numbered
5,812,100 in 2001. The most recent data by firm size
(1999) indicate that 99.7 percent of businesses in the
nation were small. In 2001, an estimated 9,826,000
individuals were self-employed. (Source: U.S. Dept. of
Labor, Employment and Training Administration; U.S.
Dept. of Commerce, Census Bureau; U.S. Dept. of
Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Women-Owned Businesses. Women owned 26.0
percent of the nation’s firms in 1997 and generated
$818.7 billion in revenues. 15.6 peercent of womenowned
businesses had employees. (Source: U.S. Dept.
of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of
Commerce, Census Bureau)
Minority-Owned Businesses. The latest (1997)
Census data indicate that minority-owned businesses
totaled 3,039,000 and made up 14.6 percent of the
nation’s businesses, of which 20.2 percent were
employer firms. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce,
Census Bureau)
Business Turnover. In 2001, there were 574,500 new
employer firms, or 5.0 percent fewer new employer
firms than in 2000. Business bankruptcies totaled
39,719 in 2001, an increase of 12.8 percent over 2000,
while business terminations amounted to 585,800, an
increase of 4.5 percent over 2000. (Source: U.S. Dept.
of Labor, Employment and Training Administration;
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts; U.S. Dept. of
Commerce, Census Bureau)
Employment. Small businesses employed 55,729,092
or 50.3 percent of the nation’s 110,705,661 employees
(non-farm private sector) in 1999. The industry with the
most small business employees was manufacturing. The
total number of small employer firms in 1999 was
5,591,003 (Table 1). (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce,
Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses)
Small Business Income. Proprietors’ income—a
partial measure of small business income—totaled
$745.1 billion in 2001, an increase of 4.0 percent over
2000. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce)
Finance. Often, small businesses use commercial
lenders and rely on local bank services. Over the last
five years, the number of banks in the nation has
decreased. The Office of Advocacy has identified the
small-business-friendly banks within the United States
and has published the names in its banking studies
report. (See Table 2 for the number of banks by asset
size.) Small businesses seeking loans should also
consider lenders that participate in the SBA’s preferred
or certified loan programs; for a list of these lenders,
call the Small Business Answer Desk at (800) 827-5722.
For additional information on the Office of
Advocacy’s research reports, data, and analyses on
small business, visit www.sba.gov/advo/stats or call
(202) 205-6530.
Sign up at http://web.sba.gov/list for email delivery
of:
• Advocacy’s News Releases,
• Advocacy’s monthly newsletter, The Small Business
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• Advocacy’s Small Business Research and Statistics,
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Note: Data on women-owned and minority-owned
firms are not comparable between 1992 and 1997, so
growth rates are not available. Data on minority
owners may not sum to the total because an owner
may belong to more than one minority group.
Table 1. Firms and Employment in United States by Industry and Firm Size (Thousands), 1999
Industry
Non-employer
Firms
Employer
Firms
Employment
Total <500 Total <500
Total 16,152.6 5,607.7 5,591.0 110,705.7 55,729.1
Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting 226 26.3 26.1 192.2 *
Mining 81 18.8 18.5 456.6 *
Utilities 14 6.7 6.4 667.1 102.4
Construction 1,986 691.5 690.5 6,201.6 5,426.8
Manufacturing 289 311.9 307.2 16,659.9 6,841.3
Wholesale trade 395 358.6 355.3 5,972.0 3,834.3
Retail trade 1,761 730.3 727.9 14,476.6 6,382.1
Transportation and warehousing 719 155.2 154.0 3,627.1 1,524.2
Information 221 77.1 76.0 3,234.5 913.5
Finance and insurance 667 223.5 221.9 5,965.2 1,916.2
Real estate; rental and leasing 1,648 242.8 241.6 1,873.8 1,323.7
Professional, scientific, and technical services 2,388 654.5 652.2 6,432.4 4,189.6
Management of companies and enterprises N/A 26.9 20.3 2,788.3 313.7
Admin., support, waste mngt., and remed., services 989.7 299.4 296.3 8,366.5 3,376.8
Educational services 262.6 59.6 58.7 2,431.7 1,143.2
Health care and social assistance 1,253.9 524.3 520.9 13,865.0 6,510.4
Arts, entertainment, and recreation 748.7 96.0 95.5 1,640.0 1,133.4
Accommodation and food services 210.4 411.6 410.0 9,638.0 5,848.6
Other services 2,292.6 656.9 655.6 5,151.5 4,428.4
Auxilary, except corp, subsidiary, and regional managing N/A 5.5 3.1 959.3 55.1
Unclassified N/A 98.0 98.0 106.3 106.3
* Data suppressed to protect the confidentiality of individual firms.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau.
Table 2. Number of Banks in United States by Asset Size, 1996 – 2001
Number of Banks Number of Banks by Asset Size, 2001
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Below $100M $100M–$500M $500M–$1B $1B–$10B Over $10B
9,670 9,293 8,966 8,659 8,459 8158 4,648 2,763 320 304 77
Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy, from data collected by the Federal Reserve Board.
The full list of small-business-friendly banks can be found on the Office of Advocacy’s website at www.sba.gov/advo/lending.