Nonemployers Plan

Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics Program
The Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics series (NES-D) provides information on the
demographic characteristics of nonemployer businesses. The NES-D is the result of a research
project by the Census Bureau to complete the picture of U.S. business ownership by demographics
for the United States. Historically, the quinquennial Survey of Business Owners (SBO) provided the
only comprehensive source of information on both employer and nonemployer businesses by
demographic characteristics of the business owners. In 2017, the SBO was replaced by the Annual
Business Survey (ABS). The ABS collects demographic characteristics from employer businesses
annually. However, the ABS excludes the collection of demographic data from nonemployer
businesses. The NES-D was developed to produce similar estimates as ABS on owner demographics
for nonemployer businesses. The NES-D is not a survey; rather, it leverages existing individual-level
administrative records to assign demographic characteristics to the universe of nonemployer
businesses. Demographic characteristics including sex, ethnicity, race, veteran status, owner age,
place of birth, and U.S. citizenship are assigned to nonemployer business owners.
Together, the NES-D and the ABS will continue to provide the only source of detailed and
comprehensive statistics on the scope, nature, and activities of all U.S. businesses by the
demographic characteristics of the business owners. NES-D data will be available annually by
detailed geography and industry levels, receipt-size class, and legal form of organization (LFO).
The initial release for NES-D was for 2017 reference year. Starting with the 2018 NES-D, the Census
Bureau published estimates that combined results of ABS and NES-D to formally replace
demographic statistics of all firms (employer + nonemployer) previously published as part of SBO.
The Census Bureau plans to release this data annually and reduce the lag between the ABS and
NES-D publications.
The NES-D publications and methodology are accessible from the ABS website - Nonemployer
Statistics by Demographics (NES-D) Data (census.gov); Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics
Methodology (census.gov).