In 2007, blacks owned 1.9 million nonfarm U.S. businesses operating in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, an increase of 60.5 percent from 2002. These black-owned firms accounted for 7.1 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the United States, employed 921,032 persons (0.8 percent of total employment) and generated $137.5 billion in receipts (0.5 percent of all receipts).

These findings come from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) and were collected as part of the 2007 Economic Census. The SBO includes a sample of more than 2.3 million nonfarm businesses filing 2007 tax forms as individual proprietorships, partnerships, or any type of corporation, and with receipts of $1,000 or more. The SBO defines black-owned businesses as firms in which blacks own 51 percent or more of the equity, interest or stock of the business.

Table 6 shows the number of firms and value of receipts for all black-owned businesses in 2007 and the changes from 2002 to 2007.

Employment size and receipts size data for black-owned firms are shown in Chart 3 and Chart 2.

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In 2007, 37.6 percent of black-owned firms operated in the health care and social assistance (NAICS 62) and repair, maintenance, personal, and laundry services (NAICS 81) sectors. Black-owned firms accounted for 15.4 percent of all U.S. businesses in the health care and social assistance (NAICS 62) sector as well as 13.4 percent of all firms in the transportation and warehousing (NAICS 48-49) sector. Table 5 and Chart 1 show the distribution of black-owned firms by sector. Retail trade (NAICS 44-45) and health care and social assistance (NAICS 62) accounted for 27.4 percent of black-owned business revenue.

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New York had the largest number of black-owned firms at 204,032 (10.6 percent of all black-owned firms), with receipts of $12.8 billion (9.3 percent of all black-owned firm receipts). Georgia and Florida were next with 183,874 (9.6 percent) and 181,437 (9.4 percent) black-owned firms respectively, with receipts of $8.9 billion (6.5 percent) and 10.6 billion (7.7 percent) respectively. Table 1 and Map 1 show, for each state, the number of black-owned firms as a percentage of the total number of firms in that state in 2007. Table 6 and Map 2 show, for each state, the change in the number of black-owned firms from 2002 to 2007.

Among U.S. counties, Cook County, Illinois, had the largest number of black-owned firms in 2007 at 83,733. Los Angeles County, California had the second largest number of black-owned firms, with 59,680. Kings County, New York, was third, with 52,705 black-owned firms. Table 2 shows, for the 50 most populous counties, the number of black-owned firms as a percentage of the total number of firms in each respective county in 2007.

The two cities with the largest number of black-owned firms in 2007 were New York City, with 154,929 and Chicago, with 58,631. Table 3 shows, for the 50 most populous cities, the number of black-owned firms as a percentage of the total number of firms in each respective city in 2007.

Statistics for black-owned firms in the 50 most populous metropolitan statistical areas in 2007 can be found in Table 4.

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The SBO collects data from both employer and nonemployer businesses. Employer businesses are firms with paid employees, including workers on the payroll and excluding sole proprietors and partners. Nonemployer businesses are firms without paid employees, including sole proprietors and partners of unincorporated businesses that do not have any other employees on the payroll.

In 2007, there were 106,824 black-owned employer firms, an increase of 13.0 percent from 2002. These firms employed 921,032 person and had a total payroll of $23.9 billion, an increase of 22.2 percent and 36.3 percent respectively from 2002. In 2007, these firms generated $98.9 billion in receipts, an increase of 50.2 percent from 2002. In 2007, employer firms accounted for 5.6 percent of the total number of black-owned firms and 71.9 percent of black-owned firms’ gross receipts. Average receipts for these black-owned employer firms in 2007 were $925,427.

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In 2007, 1.8 million black-owned firms had no paid employees, an increase of 64.5 percent from 2002. These nonemployer firms generated $38.6 billion in receipts, an increase of 69.0 percent from 2002. In 2007, nonemployers accounted for 94.4 percent of the total number of black-owned firms and 28.1 percent of gross receipts. Average receipts for these black-owned nonemployer firms in 2007 were $21,263.

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The 2007 and 2002 SBO data were published according to the 2007 and 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) respectively. Prior to the 2002 SBO, data were published according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. Additional changes affecting data comparability are discussed in detail in Methodology, in the section titled "Comparability of the 2007 and 2002 SBO Data."

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