A nonemployer business is defined as an establishment without paid employees, that is subject to federal income taxes, and has annual receipts of $1,000 or more ($1 or more for the Construction sector).

The majority of all business establishments in the United States are nonemployers. These businesses include some partnerships and corporations, however the majority of nonemployers are self-employed individuals operating unincorporated businesses (known as sole proprietorships), which may or may not be the owner's principal source of income.

An establishment is defined as a single physical location where business activities are conducted, services are rendered, or industrial operations are performed. A firm may have one or more establishments. The Census Bureau treats the terms firm and establishment interchangeably for Nonemployer Statistics. Each distinct business income tax return filed by a business with no paid employees is counted as a firm, though it may be referred to as an establishment to maintain consistency with other data products.

A nonemployer business may operate from the owner's home address, a separate physical location, or a mobile location. For Nonemployer Statistics, most geographic codes are based on the business owner's mailing address, which may differ from the actual location where business activities occur.

Nonemployer Statistics data are available for various geographic levels, including national, state, county, metropolitan/micropolitan statistical areas, and combined statistical areas.

Nonemployer Statistics data are not available for businesses located in island areas or for sub-place geographies such as census blocks, block groups, and tracts, as defined in the Decennial Census. Additionally, many sub-county and sub-state geographies—such as school districts, congressional districts, voting districts, and state legislative districts—are excluded. These geographic levels are omitted primarily to protect the confidentiality of individual business information.

Nonemployer Statistics data excludes businesses located in the island areas. However, the County Business Patterns publication covers employer businesses located in Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Nonemployer Statistics data are available by legal form of organization at the national and state level for each published industry.

Starting with the 2009 Nonemployer Statistics data, receipts size class data are available at the national level for each published industry.

Nonemployer Statistics follow U.S. Census Bureau and IRS disclosure guidelines, as the majority of the data originates with the IRS. In Nonemployer Statistics tables from reference year 2004 or earlier, cell suppression was used to protect data confidentiality for cells that had a value based largely on contributions from a small number of businesses. These cell values were replaced with a “D” indicating they were withheld to protect the confidentiality of the businesses contributing to the cell value.

Starting in reference year 2005, the Noise Infusion disclosure avoidance method was incorporated to protect receipt totals. Noise Infusion is a method of disclosure avoidance in which values are perturbed prior to table creation by applying a random noise multiplier to the magnitude data (in this case, receipts) independently, for each business. This method of disclosure protection results in a relatively small change for the majority of published receipts totals. For reference years 2005 through 2016, some noisy cell values were also suppressed with a “D.” However, after further review by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Disclosure Review Board (DRB) it was determined that the “D” suppression symbol was reserved for the cell suppression method of disclosure avoidance, and its use was not recommended for estimates released with noise infusion. The DRB further recommended that suppression of these additional noisy cell values was unnecessary. As a result, during reference years 2017 and 2018, the use of the “D” suppression symbol was phased out.

Starting in reference year 2007, each published cell value has an associated noise flag indicating the relative amount of distortion in the cell value resulting from the perturbation of the data. The flag for ‘low noise’ (G) indicates a change to a cell value by less than 2 percent with the application of noise. The flag for ‘moderate noise’ (H) indicates a change to a cell value by 2 percent or more but less than 5 percent. The flag for ‘high noise’ (J) indicates a change to a cell value was 5 percent or more.

Starting in reference year 2018, the number of establishments and receipts in a data cell must contain three or more businesses to be published. If this condition does not hold, the U.S. Census Bureau removes the cell from publication. Cells may also be suppressed because the quality of the data does not meet publication standards. In accordance with U.S. Code, Title 13, Section 9, and Title 26 no data are published that would disclose the operations of an individual business.

For more information, please refer to the Nonemployer Statistics Methodology page.

Nonemployer Statistics are published annually.