The 2009 estimates presented in this report are based on data collected from a sample of 47,101 companies with employees and 30,000 businesses without employees. The sample frame for companies with employees included about 5.9 million companies; the sample frame for companies without employees totaled about 28.2 million companies. For companies with employees, capital expenditures data are published for 132 industries. Total capital expenditures are shown for the businesses without employees with no industry detail.

Beginning with the 2004 ACES, industry categories used in the survey were comprised primarily of three-digit and selected four-digit industries from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS): 2002. Industry combinations were developed through consultation with data users. In addition, a category was provided for structures and equipment expenditures serving multiple industries; for example, headquarters, regional offices, and central research laboratories.

In 2007, an updated edition of the NAICS was released. 2009 was the first year that sampled ACES companies were asked to report using the 2007 NAICS. The 2008 data was sampled, collected, and published on the older 2002 NAICS basis. To make equitable comparisons between cycles, the 2008 ACES data are restated in terms of 2007 NAICS and its associated ACES codes.

Four survey forms (ACE-1(S), ACE-1(M), ACE-1(L), and ACE-2) were used for the 2009 ACES. The ACE-1(S), ACE- 1(M), and ACE-1(L) survey forms were mailed to a sample of 47,101 companies with employees. Recipients of these forms were asked to provide capital expenditures data for each industry in which they had activity and to classify these expenditures as new and used structures or equipment.

New structures and equipment include new buildings and other structures, structures that have been previously owned but are neither used nor occupied, new machinery and equipment, and other new depreciable assets. Used structures and equipment include buildings and other structures which have been previously owned and occupied, machinery and secondhand equipment, and other used depreciable assets. In addition, companies were asked to report new structures and equipment acquired under capital lease arrangements entered into during the survey year.

The ACE-2 survey form was mailed to a sample of 30,000 businesses without employees. Capital expenditures data were requested separately for new and used structures and equipment. (Examples of ACE-1(S), ACE-1(M), ACE-1(L), and ACE-2 survey forms are in Questionnaires and Instructions.)

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: