How many small businesses are there in the US?

Almost every US business is small, and most have no employees at all. The Census Bureau reports that businesses with employees were just 21.6 percent of all US businesses in 2023. Among the 6,395,635 firms that did have employees in 2022, 99.7 percent had fewer than 500 workers, and nearly two-thirds had fewer than five. These are the Census Bureau’s own counts, from its Statistics of U.S. Businesses.

Fewer than 563.00%

5 to 916.17%

10 to 1910.27%

20 to 998.77%

100 to 4991.46%

500 or more0.33%

Fewer than 5	63.00%
5 to 9	16.17%
10 to 19	10.27%
20 to 99	8.77%
100 to 499	1.46%
500 or more	0.33%

Nearly two-thirds of employer firms have fewer than 5 employees, and 99.7% have fewer than 500.

Source: US Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, 2022

How many US businesses have employees?

In 2022, the US had 6,395,635 firms with paid employees, by the Census Bureau’s Statistics of U.S. Businesses. Those firms ran 8,298,562 establishments and employed 135,748,407 people. The Census describes the series as annual statistics for “U.S. business establishments with paid employees”, counted “by geography, industry, and enterprise size”.

Firms with employees are the minority, though. The Census Bureau reports that businesses with employees made up 21.6 percent of all US businesses in 2023, down from 24.6 percent in 2012. The great majority of US businesses have no payroll at all.

How small are the businesses that have employees?

Very small. Nearly two-thirds of employer firms have fewer than five people on the books, and almost nine in ten have fewer than twenty.

Put together, 6,374,594 of the 6,395,635 employer firms, or 99.7 percent, have fewer than 500 employees. The firms most people picture when they hear “big business”, those with 500 workers or more, number just 21,041, about 0.3 percent of the total.

What about businesses with no employees?

They are the majority. The Census counts them in a separate program, Nonemployer Statistics, which defines a nonemployer business as one of the “businesses that have no paid employees, are subject to federal income tax and have receipts of $1,000 or more”. These are the self-employed: freelancers, sole proprietors, independent contractors and single-person companies. Their share of all US businesses has grown, which is why the employer share fell from 24.6 percent to 21.6 percent over the decade to 2023.

What counts as a small business?

There is no one number. The Small Business Administration says its size standards “vary by industry and are generally based on the number of employees” or “the amount of annual receipts the business has”. Most manufacturers count as small with “500 employees or fewer”, while many service and retail industries use a revenue cap instead. The 99.7 percent figure above is a plain size cut from the Census data, not the SBA’s across-the-board rule, because the SBA has no single across-the-board rule.

So what is the total?

The honest answer is that the grand total depends on whether you count the self-employed, and it runs into the tens of millions once you do. This page reports the two figures it can verify directly from the Census: 6,395,635 firms with employees in 2022, and the Census finding that such firms are about one in five of all US businesses. The full count of all businesses, including every freelancer and sole proprietor, comes from the SBA’s annual small-business FAQ and the Census Nonemployer Statistics tables. Whichever source you use, the conclusion is the same: the overwhelming majority of US businesses are small, and most have no employees.

Add your company to the Index

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What this page could not check

• This page states the count of businesses with employees (SUSB 2022) and the Census share of businesses that have employees. It does not give a single grand total of all US businesses, because the full count including the self-employed sits in the SBA’s small-business FAQ and the Census Nonemployer Statistics tables, which this page could not read directly.
• The word “small” is defined differently across programs. SUSB simply bands firms by size, while the SBA’s legal standards vary by industry, so the 99.7 percent under 500 employees is a size cut from the Census data rather than the SBA’s rule.
• The firm-size data are for 2022, the latest release, and the employer share is for 2023, so the two facts sit a year apart.
• Each figure is due for a check after May 1, 2027, when newer releases are out.

Sources

• US Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, 2022 US firms-by-size table (us_state_naics_detailedsizes_2022.xlsx), reference year 2022, read November 1, 2026.
• US Census Bureau, “About Statistics of U.S. Businesses”, read November 1, 2026.
• US Census Bureau, “Number of U.S. Nonemployers Grew Faster Than Employer Businesses Nearly Every Year From 2012 to 2023”, July 30, 2025.
• US Census Bureau, “Census Bureau Releases 2024 Nonemployer Statistics”, September 29, 2026.
• US Census Bureau, 2022 SUSB Annual Data Tables, released 2025.
• US Small Business Administration, “Size standards”, federal contracting guide, read November 1, 2026.
• Internal Revenue Service, “Employer Identification Number”, last reviewed July 17, 2026.