U.S. Department of Commerce

Business Dynamics Statistics

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Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) Data

2011 Release

The latest release of BDS data contains data for 1976–2011 and includes tables by establishment characteristics in addition to tables by firm characteristics.

  • Firm Characteristics Data Tables
    Describes job flow and entry/exit patterns for establishments in the U.S. classified according to the size and age of the firm with which they are associated.
  • Establishment Characteristics Data Tables
    Describes job flow and entry/exit patterns for establishments in the U.S. classified according to the size and age of the establishments themselves.

Legacy Versions

Legacy Data Tables include previous versions of the BDS. Each new release of the BDS (including annual updates) constitute a new version of the BDS. Old versions of the BDS are maintained for reproducibility purposes.

Note that each new version of the BDS can differ from previous versions. There are two reasons for this. With every annual update of the BDS, we may change up to 5 years of prior data since we can link establishments over periods of inactivity (e.g., establishments previously classified as exits can be reclassified as continuers). In addition, changes to the underlying code can lead to changes beyond the previous 5 years.



 What is the BDS?

The Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) is a public use data set of annual aggregate statistics describing establishment openings and closings, firm startups, job creation and destruction by firm size, age, industrial sector, and state.


 BDS Codebook

BDS 2011 Codebook

  Download the
  BDS 2011 Codebook PDF (36 KB)


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Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Center for Economic Studies | (301) 763-6460 | E-mail CES |  Last Revised: May 23, 2013