Founder Data ReportSix in Ten American Employer Businesses Have Exactly One Owner. The Average One Has Eight Employees.
You can’t afford to risk your business without a Sidekick at your side.
The Census Bureau asked 2.92 million U.S. businesses with employees how many people own them. 61.0% said one. Those 1,778,079 businesses carry 14.7 million people on payroll — and the decision sits with one person in every industry the survey publishes.
Of the 2,916,044 U.S. businesses with employees that told the Census Bureau how many people own them, 1,778,079 — 61.0% — have exactly one. Another 34.8% have two to four. Fewer than one in fifty have five or more. The single-owner businesses employ 14,720,663 people between them, an average of 8.3 each, and take $1.98 million in average annual revenue. There is no second name on those decisions, and in 16 of the 18 industries where the Bureau publishes the figure, one owner is the most common answer of all.
- 61.0% of reporting employer businesses have one owner; 34.8% have two to four — a gap of 26.2 points.
- The average single-owner employer business has 8.3 employees and $1.98M in annual revenue.
- Those businesses are 61.0% of the firms and 20.6% of the employment at firms that answered.
- At the other end, 85,480 businesses — 2.9% — with eleven-plus owners, owned by another company, or not naming a number, hold 55.3% of that employment.
- 19.9% of employer businesses are co-owned by a married couple, and 10.2% are owned and run by the two spouses equally.
One owner is the ordinary case, not the exception
This is not a survey of freelancers or side businesses. Every firm in it meets a payroll. The Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey asked 2,916,044 of them how many people own the business, and 61.0% answered one person. Two to four owners is the answer for 34.8%, five to ten for 1.3%, and eleven or more for 0.4%. The ordinary American employer business is one person who owns all of it and 8.3 people who depend on what that person decides.
Each dot is one business in a hundred. The cells are whole businesses per hundred, rounded from the published shares of 61.0%, 34.8% and 4.2%. That third group is four separate categories whose own rounded shares — 1.3%, 0.4%, 1.9% and 0.7% — add to 4.3% because each is rounded on its own. Shares are of the 2,916,044 businesses that reported a number of owners, and the six published categories add to exactly that total.
U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey 2023, Characteristics of Businesses, question OWNRNUM, employer firms.
Most of the businesses, a fifth of the jobs
The same table carries each group’s payroll, and it is the more useful half of the answer. Single-owner businesses are 61.0% of the firms and 20.6% of the employment at firms that answered. Go to the other end of the column and 85,480 businesses — 2.9% of them, the ones with eleven or more owners, the ones owned by a parent company or an estate, and the ones that did not name a number — hold 55.3% of it. Two very different economies are being counted in the same survey, and the one with almost all the businesses in it is the one where nobody else signs off.
Both bars in a row are drawn on the same 0–100% scale, so they can be compared directly. Employment shares are of the 71,366,981 employees at the 2,916,044 businesses that reported an owner count — not of all U.S. employment. The four categories below 3% are drawn at the chart’s minimum bar width and should be read from their printed values. Each share is rounded on its own, so the left-hand column adds to 100.1% rather than 100.
U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey 2023, Characteristics of Businesses, question OWNRNUM, employer firms and their paid employment.
61.0% of the businesses. 20.6% of the payroll. One person deciding.
The industries where it holds, and the four where it is a tie
A national figure this large usually hides an industry running the other way. This one mostly does not. Among the 11 named sectors the survey measures precisely enough to rank, the single-owner share runs from 75.2% in health care and social assistance down to 47.0% in accommodation and food services — a spread of 28.2 points against a combined standard error of 1.3, so that ordering is real. What varies is whether one owner clearly beats two-to-four: it does in 14 of the 18 plotted sectors, and in the other 4 — mining, manufacturing, accommodation and food services, and management of companies — the two answers sit inside each other’s error bars. In two of those four, manufacturing and management of companies, two-to-four owners is the larger point estimate.
Bars are drawn on a 0–80% axis, not 0–100. Orange marks a sector whose estimate carries a standard error of 3.0 points or less; slate marks the 7 whose error is larger, and those should not be ranked against each other — management of companies is 24.4% plus or minus 22.0 points. Utilities is left out because the Bureau withholds its single-owner cell; the file prints that cell as a zero, which it is not. “Industries not classified” is a residual group and is not shown. A business operating in more than one sector is counted in each, so the sector totals add to 100.7% of the national base and the column must not be summed.
U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey 2023, Characteristics of Businesses, question OWNRNUM by 2022 NAICS sector, including the published ranges 31-33, 44-45 and 48-49. Standard errors as published.
What the number does not say
It does not say 61.0% of all American employer businesses, and the difference matters. The survey’s universe is 5.93 million employer firms with 132.8 million employees; the ones that answered this particular question are 49.1% of those firms and 53.7% of that employment. So the reporting base is not a small-business-only corner of the survey — it is about half of it on both measures — but every share here belongs to that base and is written that way.
Nor does one owner mean one person. 26.1% of employer businesses are family-owned, on a base of 2,844,990 that answered that question, and 19.9% are jointly owned by a married couple, with 10.2% of all the businesses answering — about half of those couples — owned and operated equally by both spouses. Set the 19.9% beside the 39.0% of businesses with more than one owner and married couples look like roughly half of every co-owned employer business in the country. Those are two separate questions with slightly different reporting bases, so treat it as an approximation rather than a crossing of the two. The point it supports is narrower and harder: for six in ten of these businesses there is no co-owner at all, spouse or otherwise, and the 8.3 people on the payroll are counting on one person’s judgement.
U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey 2023, Characteristics of Businesses, questions OWNRNUM, FAMOWN and SPOUSES. Each share is of the businesses that reported that question.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many small business owners are there per business?
In the 2023 Annual Business Survey, 61.0% of the 2,916,044 U.S. employer businesses that answered reported exactly one owner, 34.8% reported two to four, and 1.7% reported five or more.
How many employees does a single-owner business have?
An average of 8.3. The 1,778,079 single-owner employer businesses in the survey carry 14,720,663 employees between them, with $1.98 million in average annual revenue.
Which industries have the most single-owner businesses?
Among the sectors measured precisely enough to rank, health care and social assistance is highest at 75.2% and accommodation and food services lowest at 47.0%. The Bureau withholds the figure for utilities.
Do single-owner businesses employ most American workers?
No. They are 61.0% of the businesses that answered but 20.6% of the employment at those businesses. The 2.9% with eleven or more owners, or owned by another company, or not naming a number, hold 55.3%.
How many businesses are owned by a married couple?
19.9% of the 2,843,537 employer businesses that answered the question are jointly owned by spouses, and 10.2% are owned and operated equally by both.
Published by The Lonely Entrepreneur — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. lonelyentrepreneur.com
This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.