In 2002, there were over 125,000 Filipino-owned firms in the U.S., employing nearly 132,000 workers, and generating nearly $14.2 billion in revenue. These Filipino-owned firms accounted for 0.5 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the U.S., 0.1 percent of their employment, and 0.1 percent of their receipts.

The number of Filipino-owned businesses grew 48 percent between 1997 and 2002, and the revenues grew 28 percent.

The 2002 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) defines Filipino-owned businesses as firms in which Filipinos own 51 percent or more of the stock or equity of the business. The data in this report were collected as part of the 2002 Economic Census from a large sample of all nonfarm businesses filing 2002 tax forms as individual proprietorships, partnerships, or any type of corporation, and with receipts of $1,000 or more.

In 2002, 38.6 percent of Filipino-owned firms operated in health care and social assistance; and professional, scientific, and technical services, where they owned 0.9 percent of all such businesses in the U.S.

Health care and social assistance accounted for 39.3 percent of all Filipino-owned business revenue.

California had the most Filipino-owned firms with 58,767 firms or 47 percent, with receipts of $6.7 billion or 47.6 percent. Hawaii was second with 9,086 firms or 7.3 percent, with receipts of $639 million or 4.5 percent. Table A shows the seven states with the largest number of Filipino-owned firms and corresponding business revenues.

Table B shows the six combined statistical areas with the largest number of Filipino-owned firms and their corresponding business revenues.

Table C provides a comparison of the 2002 and 1997 published data for Filipino-owned firms and all U.S. firms. The table shows that when compared to all U.S. businesses, excluding publicly held corporations and firms for which race ownership is indeterminate, Filipino-owned firms accounted for 0.6 percent of firms, 0.2 percent of employees and 0.2 percent of receipts.

The kind-of-business data for 2002 for Filipino-owned firms are not comparable to 1997 due to the transition from the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system to the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Additional changes affecting data comparability are discussed in detail in Methodology, in the section titled "Comparability of the 2002 and 1997 SBO Data."