The Annual Business Survey (ABS) and the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Survey are being combined to increase data quality, reduce respondent burden, and to allow the Census Bureau to operate more efficiently. This year's ABS will be mailed in May 2026. Starting with this collection, the ABS will be referred to by its reference year instead of collection year. For example, the ABS being fielded in 2026 will be referred to as 2025 ABS. This name change will better align the ABS with other products like the Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics. Prior ABS data releases will not have the year and name change.
Data are facts on people, places and business collected in censuses and surveys and through administrative records (e.g., birth certificates). The results released based on these data collections are often called statistics.
The sources of the data published on census.gov are the Census Bureau and other federal agencies, if applicable.