The economic census is primarily conducted on an establishment basis. A company operating at more than one location is required to file a separate report for each location or establishment. Companies engaged in distinctly different lines of activity at one location are requested to submit separate reports, if the business records permit such a separation, and if the activities are substantial in size.

For selected industries, only payroll, employment and classification are collected for individual establishments, while other data are collected on a consolidated basis.

Firms in the economic census and related programs are divided into those sent report forms and those not sent report forms. For most economic census sectors and programs, all large- and medium-size firms and all multi-establishment firms were sent report forms to be completed for each of their establishments and returned to the Census Bureau.

For most sectors and programs, report forms were also mailed to a sample of small employers (those with paid employees). This sample consists of single-establishment firms with payroll below a specified cut off. This cut off and the sampling rate, varies by economic census sector, industry and geography. However, for most very small firms, data from existing administrative records of other federal agencies are used. These records provide basic information for the business, including data on sales, payroll, number of employees, legal form of organization and other statistics. Other industry-specific census statistics are estimated only from those establishments that receive and return a report form.

All data for firms with no paid employees during the year (also known as "nonemployers") were obtained from administrative records of other federal agencies. Data for nonemployers are included in the EWKS report from the economic census and are also released in the annual Nonemployer Statistics series.

The 2012 Economic Census of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands was conducted by mail only. Descriptions of the sources of data for the island areas follow:

1. American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — A census form was mailed to all employer firms (employers of one person or more) in operation at any time during 2012 and classified as being within the scope of the census. One single report form was used to collect data for Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nine separate report forms (Utilities, Transportation, and Warehousing; Construction; Manufacturing; Wholesale Trade; Retail Trade; Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, Rental and Leasing; Accommodation Services; Services; and General Schedule) with English and Spanish versions were used to collect data for Puerto Rico. Firms were instructed to return their completed report form by mail. A telephone follow-up was conducted to obtain information from selected firms that failed to return their report form.
2. The governments of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam under the provisions in Title 13 of the United States Code, Section 191(b), were responsible for contacting respondents about overdue census forms. The Chief Statistician of the Department of Commerce in American Samoa, the Director of the Central Statistics Division, Department of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Chief Economist of the Department of Labor in Guam supervised the local activities. Staff from the Census Bureau trained the project leaders, supervisors, and interviewers in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam, respectively. Staff from the Department of Commerce in American Samoa, the Department of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Department of Labor in Guam who worked with census data, were sworn to uphold the confidentiality of the data. The Census Bureau worked with the Department of Commerce, the Central Statistics Division, and the Department of Labor to collect information for nonrespondent establishments. Interviewers were instructed to contact establishments by telephone to obtain the required information. Personal interviews were conducted to obtain data from establishments that requested a personal visit or could not be contacted by telephone. Quality checks were performed to ensure that the necessary reports were obtained.

The report forms used to collect information for establishments in the island areas are available at the Questionnaires & Instructions page.

All dollar values presented are expressed in current dollars, and are shown in thousands of dollar unless noted otherwise.