These tables contain the combined information of two Census Bureau data products, the 2014 Profile of U.S. Importing and Exporting Companies (the Profile) and the 2014 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs (ASE). The Profile is an annual database of commingled U.S. exports and business characteristics, compiled from Electronic Export Information filed through the Automated Export System, received from Canada through the Data Exchange, or by paper shipper’s Export Declarations. This combination produces annual estimates on selected economic and demographic characteristics of U.S. employer businesses and their owners by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status as a supplement to the ASE.

The official estimate of U.S. exports in 2014 was $1,620.5 billion. Of that total, about $1,447.3 billion was attributable to “identified exporters,” specific companies to which the Census Bureau was able to match specific export transactions. In 2014, there were 305,213 identified exporters.

Of these identified exporters, about 122,000 were either out-of-scope to the ASE or were not able to be identified in the ASE universe. These included firms without reported sales, payroll, and employment; non-employer firms; firms operating primarily in out of scope industries, such as crop and animal production; and firms located in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Of the remaining identified exporters, about 183,000 (weighted) were selected into the ASE sample. All estimates in this report are based on these sampled identified exporters. Estimated total exports for these sampled identified exporters were $1,593.0 billion. Estimated total exports by publicly held firms and those otherwise not classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status were $1,357.7 billion. Estimated total exports for classifiable firms were $235.3 billion.

	Exporting firms (number)	Export value ($ billions)
Total value of exported goods (2014)	N/A	1,620.5
Identified exporters from the Profile	305,213	1,477.3
Identified exporters matched to the ASE sample (weighted)	183,439	1,593.0
“Classifiable firms” (i.e., firms classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status)	158,798	235.3
Publicly held and other firms not classifiable by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status	24,641	1,357.7

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, “Profile of U.S. Importing and Exporting Companies, 2014-2015” and 2014 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs

For more information about exporting companies, see:

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/edb/2015/index.html

More information about confidentiality, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions for the 2014 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs is available on the ASE Methodology page (see link to the right).

For Technical Documentation for the Profile of U.S. Importing and Exporting Companies see:

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/edb/2015/techdoc.pdf