The Annual Integrated Economic Survey (AIES) is a new survey designed to integrate and replace seven existing annual business surveys into one survey. The AIES will provide the only comprehensive national and subnational data on business revenues, expenses, and assets on an annual basis. The AIES is designed to combine Census Bureau collections to increase data quality, reduce respondent burden, and allow the Census Bureau to operate more efficiently.

The surveys integrated into the AIES are:

• Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES)
• Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS)
• Annual Survey of Manufactures (ASM)
• Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS)
• Manufacturers’ Unfilled Orders Survey (M3UFO)
• Report of Organization (COS)
• Service Annual Survey (SAS)

To provide key intercensal measures of economic activity for the public and private sectors. Data produced from the AIES will be based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).  Some key statistics are tabulated including:

• Capital Expenditures
• Employment
• Expenses
• Inventories
• Payroll 
• Sales, Shipments, Receipts or Revenue 

View summary of content collected

The AIES is the U.S. Government’s annual measure of American business and the economy. It is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, and response is required by law. Title 13, United States Code, Sections 131 and 182 authorize the survey and requires businesses and other organizations that receive this questionnaire to answer the questions and return the report to the U.S. Census Bureau. Sections 224 and 225 of Title 13, United States Code specify penalties for firms that fail to report.

The Census Bureau is required by Section 9 of the same law to keep your information confidential and can use your responses to only produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify your business or organization.

The AIES is a company-based survey that is sent to approximately 370,000 companies that covers domestic and nonfarm employer businesses. The selected companies meet the following criteria:

• Located in one of the 50 states, and/or the District of Columbia
• In operation for some part of the survey year
• Have paid employees
• Are classified in one of the nineteen in-scope sectors defined by NAICS

The AIES will collect the following information:

• Business characteristics, including employment, operating status, organizational change, and ownership information.
• Business classification, including business activity, type of operation, and tax status.
• Revenue, including sales, shipments, and receipts, revenue by class of customer, taxes, contributions, gifts, and grants, products, and e-commerce activity.
• Operating expenses, including purchased services, payroll, benefits, rental payments, utilities, interest, resales, equipment, materials and supplies, research and development, and other detailed operating expenses.
• Assets, including capital expenditures, inventories, and depreciable assets.
• Robotic equipment.
• Additional topics of collections in the AIES include sources of revenue for providers (e.g., hospitals and other businesses in the health industry) of select services such as inpatient days, outpatient visits to hospitals, patient visits for other selected health industries, revenue from telemedicine services, and expenses for electronic health records.  Detailed revenue content will be collected from businesses operating in select retail and services industries. Product data will be collected using the North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) from businesses operating in manufacturing industries.

Preview AIES questions.

Data are collected annually beginning March 2024.

Companies will satisfy their reporting requirement for this information collection by accessing a secure online portal and reporting data electronically, using a web-based response driven reporting tool.

AIES data products will provide national and subnation estimates for economy-wide topics that cover agriculture, construction, manufacturing, mining, retail, service, and wholesale industries and sectors.

Private businesses, organizations, industry analysts, educators and students, and economic researchers have used the data and estimates provided by these seven existing collections for analyzing and conducting impact evaluations on past and current economic performance, short-term economic forecasts, productivity, long-term economic growth, market analysis, tax policy, capacity utilization, business fixed capital stocks and capital formation, domestic and international competitiveness trade policy, product development, market research, and financial analysis. 

Trade and professional organizations have used the estimates to analyze industry trends and benchmark their own statistical programs, develop forecasts, and evaluate regulatory requirements. 

Government program officials and agencies have used the data for research, economic policy making, and forecasting.  Based on the use of the data of the existing collections, estimates produced from the AIES will serve as a benchmark for Census Bureau indicator programs, such as the Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services (MARTS), the Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS), Manufacturers’ Shipments Inventories & Orders (M3), Monthly Wholesale Trade Survey (MWTS), and the Quarterly Services Survey (QSS). 

Like the previous collections, the AIES will provide updates to the Longitudinal Research Database (LRD), and Census Bureau staff and academic researchers with sworn agent status will continue to use the LRD for micro data analysis. 

The Census Bureau will also continue to use information collected in the AIES to update and maintain the centralized, multipurpose Business Register that provides sampling populations and enumeration lists for the Census Bureau’s economic surveys and censuses. 

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will continue to use the estimates to derive industry output for the input-output accounts and for the gross domestic product (GDP).  We expect that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will continue to use the data as input to its Producer Price Index (PPI) and in developing productivity measurements; the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) will continue to use the data to prepare the Index of Industrial Production, to improve estimates of investment indicators for monetary policy, and in monitoring retail credit lending; the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to use the data to estimate expenditures for the National Health Accounts and for monitoring and evaluating healthcare industries; and the Department of the Treasury will continue to use the data to analyze depreciation and to research economic trends.

Data will be released beginning in the summer of 2025.