General highlights

In 2013, U.S. nonfarm businesses invested $1,488.2 billion in new and used structures and equipment, an increase of 4.5 percent over the revised 2012 total of $1,423.6 billion. ^(1,2) (See Summary Table A, below, and Tables 1a and 1b) Total spending on new structures and new equipment was $1,401.7 billion, an increase of 5.0 percent over the revised 2012 total of $1,335.3 billion.

Expenditures in 2013 for new and used structures totaled $577.9 billion. (See Figure 1) Of this amount, $545.0 billion (94.3 percent) was spent for new structures. Expenditures for used structures totaled $33.0 billion.

Spending on new and used equipment totaled $910.3 billion in 2013, up $57.0 billion (6.7 percent) from 2012. Of this amount, $856.7 billion (94.1 percent) was for new equipment, an increase of $56.5 billion (7.1 percent) from 2012. Expenditures for used equipment totaled $53.5 billion.

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The Annual Capital Expenditures Survey collects data from companies with and without employees. Companies with employees accounted for $1,397.8 billion (93.9 percent) of total capital spending in 2013. These companies invested $542.2 billion in structures. Expenditures in equipment totaled $855.6 billion, up $54.2 billion (6.8 percent) from 2012. (See Figure 2)

Companies without employees accounted for $90.4 billion (6.1 percent) of capital spending in 2013, with $35.8 billion spent on structures and $54.7 billion spent on equipment(See Summary Table B, below)

Highlights by business sector for companies with employees

(Data in this section are based on the 2007 North American Industry Classification System. Data are only for companies with employees because companies without employees are not asked to report capital expenditures by sector or industry.)

Of the 19 NAICS major industry sectors covered in this report, 8 had a statistically significant increase in capital spending in 2013 compared with 2012, 1 had a statistically significant decrease, and 10 showed no statistically significant change. The values of structures and equipment may not sum to the values of total capital expenditures due to rounding. (See Summary Chart A below, Figure 3, and Figure 4)

Of the 132 industries covered in this report, 39 had a statistically significant increase in spending, 15 had a statistically significant decrease, and 78 showed no statistically significant change from the prior year.

¹ The present report compares business investment in 2013 and 2012. For an assessment of investment spending patterns over a longer period, see 2013 Spending Report: U.S. Capital Spending Patterns-2002-2011

² Estimated measures of sampling variability have been calculated for each estimate and are used to construct 90-percent confidence intervals (or ranges) for all estimates of change. If the estimated range of change contains zero (0), then it is uncertain whether there was an increase or a decrease; that is, the change is not statistically different from zero (0), and the current estimate is not statistically different from the prior estimate at the 90-percent confidence level. See the "Reliability of the Estimates"; Section of Sampling and Estimation Methodologies for more information on confidence intervals and statistical significance.