In 2002, there were over 147,000 Vietnamese-owned firms in the U.S., employing nearly 125,900 workers, and generating almost $16 billion in revenue. These Vietnamese-owned firms accounted for 0.6 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 Vietnamese-owned businesses grew 50 percent between 1997 and 2002, and the revenues grew 66 percent.

The 2002 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) defines Vietnamese-owned businesses as firms in which Vietnamese 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, slightly more than half of Vietnamese-owned firms operated in other services, such as personal services, and repair and maintenance. They owned 2.7 percent of all such businesses in the U.S.

Retail trade and other services, such as personal services, and repair and maintenance accounted for 41.8 percent of all Vietnamese-owned business revenue. Table A shows the industries accounting for the largest receipts for Vietnamese-owned firms.

California had the most Vietnamese-owned firms with 50,321 firms or 34.2 percent, with receipts of $6.4 billion or 42 percent. Texas was second with 24,263 firms or 16.5 percent, with receipts of $2.2 billion or 14.2 percent. Table B shows the states with the largest number of Vietnamese-owned firms and corresponding business revenues.

Table C shows the combined statistical areas with the largest number of Vietnamese-owned firms and their corresponding business revenues.

Table D provides a comparison of the 2002 and 1997 published data for Vietnamese-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, Vietnamese-owned firms accounted for 0.7 percent of firms, 0.2 percent of employees and 0.2 percent of receipts.

The kind-of-business data for 2002 for Vietnamese-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."