The prevalence of nonemployer establishments varied widely across the country in 2022. A comparison of NES data and population estimates found that:

• Florida had the greatest per capita rate of nonemployer establishments, boasting 13.3 such establishments for every 100 people. Wyoming and Georgia tied for a distant second (with 10.8 each), followed by Texas, Vermont, and Colorado (10.0 each).
• West Virginia was the state with the lowest per capita rate, with 5.3 nonemployer establishments per 100 people.
• California, which had the most nonemployer establishments, was home to nearly 500,000 more such entities than second place Texas (3,023,525), with Florida (2,968,201) rounding out the top three.
• North Dakota had the lowest total number (59,106) of nonemployer establishments, followed close behind by Alaska (60,471). While low population states Wyoming and Vermont also had small numbers of nonemployer establishments (62,751 and 64,930, respectively), each boasted a relatively high per capita rate — 10.8 and 10.0 per 100 people, respectively — compared to the national average of 8.9.

Nonemployer Statistics covers 18 economic sectors as defined by the 2022 North American Industry Classification System or NAICS (Table 1). The three largest sectors in 2022 by number of establishments were Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (4,013,209); Transportation and Warehousing (3,854,720); and Real Estate, Rental and Leasing (3,145,367).

The Real Estate, Rental and Leasing sector had the largest receipts among nonemployers in 2022, bringing in 20.0% of total nonemployer receipts ($344.7 billion) despite making up just 10.6% of the nation’s nonemployer establishments.

The Construction sector made up 9.6% of 2022 nonemployer establishments with 2,875,590 businesses. These firms shoveled up 13.8% of the U.S. total nonemployer receipts with $238.0 billion in Construction nonemployer receipts.

The third-place sector was Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, representing a 13.5% share of U.S. nonemployers with 4,013,209 nonemployer establishments and a commensurate 13.3% share ($229.4 billion) of total U.S. nonemployer receipts in 2022.

The Census Bureau’s NES also sorts nonemployers into 11 receipt-size categories ranging from less than $5,000 to more than $5 million.

The Finance and Insurance sector had 542 nonemployer establishments with receipt values exceeding $5 million, constituting more than half the total nonemployers with receipts that large. In second place: Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation which had 322 nonemployer establishments with $5 million or more in receipts.

Four other sectors that had nonemployer establishments with receipts exceeding $5 million in 2022 were Transportation and Warehousing (40); Wholesale Trade (29); Retail Trade (25); and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (5).