Data estimates from the 1993 ACES represented a sample of approximately 29,500 companies with five or more employees and 15,000 businesses with fewer than five employees (including nonemployers). Results of the 1993 ACES were published in September 1995.

The estimates presented in this report are based on 1994 data collected from a sample of approximately 27,600 companies with five or more paid employees. Capital expenditures data are published for 94 industries. For this survey year, respondents were asked to provide detailed information on expenditures by type of structure.

Data for 1995 will represent a newly selected sample of approximately 30,000 nonfarm companies with five or more employees. In addition, total capital expenditures, with no industry detail, will be shown for approximately 15,000 businesses with fewer than five employees. Data collected will include information from the basic survey, as well as small business information from the third supplement of the 5-year cycle. These data will be available early in 1997.

The industry categories used in the survey were comprised of two and selected three-digit industries from the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual: 1987(1). Industry combinations were developed through an analysis of test survey results. This analysis consisted of reviewing the frequency and value of industries reported. Also, consideration was given to related industries for which respondents were unable to separately report. In addition, a category was provided for structures and equipment expenditures serving multiple industries; for example, headquarters, regional offices, and central research laboratories.

(1) Standard Industrial Classification Manual: 1987. For sale by Superintendent
of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington,
DC 20402, Stock No. 041-001-00314-2.

One survey form was used for the 1994 ACES. The ACE-1 form was mailed to a sample of approximately 27,600 companies with five or more employees. Recipients of this survey form were requested to provide capital expenditures data for each industry in which they had activity and to classify these expenditures as new and used structures and equipment. An example of this survey form is shown in Questionnaires and Instructions.

New structures and equipment include expenditures for new buildings and other structures, structures that have been previously owned but neither used nor occupied, new machinery and equipment, and other new fixed assets. Used structures and equipment include expenditures for buildings and other structures which have been previously owned and occupied, secondhand machinery and equipment, and other used fixed assets.

Respondents were also asked to report new structures and equipment acquired under capital lease arrangements entered into during the survey year, and capitalized interest incurred to produce or construct new fixed assets during the survey year. In addition to the basic survey, respondents were also asked to report detailed information on the type of structures acquired during the survey year.

In accordance with federal law governing Census Bureau reports (Title 13 of the United States Code), no data are published that would disclose the identity or operations of

companies providing information. When the estimate for a specific data item cannot be shown without disclosing information for individual companies, the publication of that data item is suppressed. The process of suppression does not change the higher-level aggregate totals, so the integrity of the data is not adversely affected. The suppression techniques used ensure that individual company data cannot be identified from the higher-level aggregate totals.

The following abbreviations and symbols are used in this publication: