U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Skip Header


Survey Description

The Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES) is a program designed to provide more detailed and timely information on capital investment in structures and equipment by nonfarm enterprises. The data are used to improve the quality of current economic indicators of business investments, as well as the quarterly estimates of gross domestic product. The data also provide facts about trends in capital expenditures useful for identifying business opportunities, product development, and business planning.

2021
  • 2021
  • 2020
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
  • 2002
  • 2001
  • 2000
  • 1999
  • 1998
  • 1997
  • 1996
  • 1995
  • 1994
2021

Background

Capital expenditures for 2021 were collected, using an internet self-administered questionnaire, from a sample of about 50,000 companies with paid employees, called the employer or ACE-1 component, from a universe of 5.8 million companies.

In most years, data are collected from a sample of 20,000 companies without paid employees, called nonemployer companies, or the ACE-2 component. For survey year 2021, information for nonemployer companies was not collected.

Companies with paid employees are asked to report capital expenditures on structures and equipment by broad industry categories. Companies without employees are only asked about structures and equipment without any industry associated with it.

Composition of Industry Category Codes

Beginning with the 2004 ACES, industry categories used in the survey were comprised primarily of three-digit and selected four-digit industries from the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). 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.

An updated edition of the NAICS was released in 2007 and was first incorporated in the 2009 ACES reference year.  For survey years 2014 through 2019, the 2012 edition of the NAICS was used.  The 2020 and 2021 ACES was based on the 2017 NAICS.

Information Requested

Three survey forms were used for the 2021 ACES: the ACE-1(S) for smaller companies with employees, ACE-1(M) for midsized companies with employees, and ACE-1(L) for larger companies with employees.  The ACE-1(S), ACE- 1(M), and ACE-1(L) survey forms were mailed to the sample of companies with employees. Recipients of these survey forms 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.  (Examples of ACE-1(S), ACE-1(M), and ACE-1(L) survey forms are available 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 depreciable 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 depreciable assets. In addition, these companies were asked to report new structures and equipment acquired under capital lease arrangements entered into during the survey year.

Capital expenditures information was not collected for companies without employees. Capital expenditures data were requested separately for new and used structures and equipment.

Questionnaires and Instructions

Note on Disclosure

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 enterprises providing information. When the estimate for a specific data item cannot be shown without disclosing sensitive information for individual enterprises, the publication of that data item is suppressed. The process used to avoid sensitive disclosures used in ACES does not change the overall totals or otherwise affect the integrity of the published data.

Abbreviations and Symbol

The following abbreviations and symbols are used in this publication:

D The data are withheld (suppressed) to avoid disclosing data for individual enterprises. The data may be included at higher level totals where the individual enterprise’s data is not disclosed due to aggregation.
NA The data are Not Applicable.
NS The difference in the two estimates being compared are not statistically significant at the Census Bureau standard of 90% confidence. This is also used for the estimate of percent change, where a NS notation means the estimate of percent change is not statistically different from 0%.
X The estimate of the quality, using Relative Standard Error, is not able to be calculated reliably. This is due to how sampling variance is estimated when most, or all, of the sampled enterprises that had a chance to be sampled did not report positive values for that item.
Z
The estimate is greater than 0, but still rounds to zero in the published units.

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021
Is this page helpful?
Thumbs Up Image Yes Thumbs Down Image No
NO THANKS
255 characters maximum 255 characters maximum reached
Thank you for your feedback.
Comments or suggestions?

Top

Back to Header