How many small businesses in the US are there in 2024?
Since the Great Resignation, there have been and continue to be more small businesses cropping up after the pandemic and the shortage of work opportunities.
It’s a sink or swim ordeal, so those who choose to swim are creating new businesses. It’s expected that there will be many new businesses started over 2024 and beyond.
The Great Resignation is the buzz phrase that correlates with the unusually high number of employees quitting their jobs between late 2020 and early 2021 (NASDAQ).
However, data has shown that this mass resignation started over a decade ago.
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How Many Small Businesses in the US Are There in 2024?
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there were a total of 32.5 million small businesses in the United States.
That figure represents 99.9% of all U.S. businesses.
Also, the SBA report shows that there are 61.2 million small business employees, accounting for 46.8% of all American employees.
That’s nearly half of the population’s employee base.
NASDAQ reported that an Intuit survey of 8,000 U.S. workers accompanied by a Small Business Insights survey of 2,000 small business owners revealed that 83% of those surveyed wanted to start their own business.
Those surveyed also cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason for the acceleration of their plans to do so.
The prediction for 2022 is that 17 million new small businesses will be formed, which will be a third consecutive record year for creating new entrepreneurs.
The 32.5 million existing small businesses may be small as individual businesses.
However, collectively, their impact accounts for $5 trillion for the nation’s economy. Also, they employ at least 41 million people.
These numbers are proof of the massive impact small business has at the local, state, and national levels in America.
What Are the Demographics for US Small Businesses?
We have gathered the demographic data for small businesses in the United States from the SBA 2021 report.
We’ll start with the demographics of those who own small businesses in America.
Gender
- Women own a total of 11,691,410 small businesses in the United States. Of women-owned businesses, 10,550,000 have no employees, while 1,141,410 have employees.
- Men own a total of 17,406,959 U.S. small businesses. Those with employees account for 3,496,959 businesses, and those without employees account for 13,910,000 businesses.
Demographic Groups
- Veterans own 1,758,934 of US small businesses, with 337,934 with employees and 1,421,000 without.
- African-American-owned small businesses in the US account for 3,075,551 businesses. Of those small businesses, 124,551 have employees, and 2,951,000 have none.
- Hispanic-owned US small businesses make up 3,966,625 businesses. These businesses account for 331,625 with employees and 3,635,000 without.
- Caucasian-owned businesses come to 24,759,889, with 19,990,000 having no employees, and 4,769,883 with employees.
Location
Since we’re focusing on U.S. small business statistics and data, we will include location demographics by state.
Here is a list of the most recent figures for the top 20 states in the United States.
- California: 4.2 million (98.2% of California businesses)
- Texas: 3.0 million (99.8% of Texas businesses)
- Florida: 2.8 million (99.8% of Florida businesses)
- New York: 2.3 million (99.8% of New York businesses)
- Illinois; 1.2 million (99.6% of Illinois businesses)
- Pennsylvania: 1.1 million (99.6% of Pennsylvania businesses)
- Georgia: 1.1 million (99.6% of Georgia businesses)
- North Carolina: 964,280 (99.6% of all North Carolina businesses)
- New Jersey: 937,436 (99.6% of New Jersey businesses)
- Ohio: 982,035 (99.6% of Ohio businesses)
- Michigan: 902,131 (99.6% of Michigan businesses)
- Virginia: 783,977 (99.5% of Virginia businesses)
- Massachusetts: 715,425 (99.5% of Massachusetts businesses)
- Colorado: 674,741 (99.5% of Colorado businesses)
- Washington (state): 647,639 (99.5% Washington businesses)
- Tennessee: 636,842 (99.5% of Tennessee businesses)
- Maryland: 618,214 (99.5% of Maryland businesses)
- Arizona: 611,097 (99.5% of Arizona businesses)
- Minnesota: 533,344 (99.5% of Minnesota businesses)
- Indiana: 529,456 (99.4% of Indiana businesses)
These numbers reflect the saturation of total small businesses per state, but not the economic impact or employee figures.
As you may notice, each state’s figures account for over 99% of the state’s total businesses. In Florida and Texas, it accounts for 99.8% of all businesses.
The top ten states with the best opportunities for starting a small business include the following:
- Iowa
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
- Missouri
- Michigan
- Ohio
- Indiana
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Nebraska
Out of these states, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, and New Hampshire rank in the top 10 best states overall.
What Is the Future of Small Business in America?
A small business is defined as a firm that employs between 100 and 1500+ employees, and has annual revenues from $1 million to more than $40 million.
The U.S Chamber of Commerce says that inflation is negatively impacting small businesses in America.
Despite this, small business owners seem to be optimistic after the pandemic era.
The Small Business Index shows that 88% of small business owners are concerned with the affect of inflation on their businesses.
Almost half (49%) are very concerned, which is 5% higher than the first quarter of 2022.
This percentage was 31% in the last quarter of 2021. Therefore, the concerns are growing.
Conclusion
How many small businesses in the US are there in 2024?
That question was answered with 32.5 million and growing.
Even with higher inflation looming over the nation and the world, most small business owners are feeling cautiously optimistic about their future.
Knowing what you know now, would you start your own business?
Do you already own a small business?
Do you relate to a lot of the data in this article?
It seems that the popularity of startups and new small businesses cropping up everywhere, 32.5 million is just the beginning in American entrepreneurship.
