--- url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-solo-count-is-not-one-trade/' title: The Newest Census Count Added 1.56 Million Businesses With No Employees in a Year. Sixteen of 18 Sectors Shared in It. author: name: Samantha Lankford url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/author/sam/' date: '2026-10-06T10:30:00-04:00' modified: '2026-10-06T10:30:00-04:00' type: post summary: 'The Census count of businesses with no employees rose by 1.56 million in 2024, to 32 million. Sixteen of 18 sectors grew, and not only the drivers.' categories: - Blog Post image: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-the-solo-count-is-not-one-trade-hero.webp' published: true --- # The Newest Census Count Added 1.56 Million Businesses With No Employees in a Year. Sixteen of 18 Sectors Shared in It. ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png)Founder Data Report ![The Newest Census Count Added 1.56 Million Businesses With No Employees in a Year. Sixteen of 18 Sectors Shared in It.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-the-solo-count-is-not-one-trade-hero.webp) Founder Data Report # The Newest Census Count Added 1.56 Million Businesses With No Employees in a Year. Sixteen of 18 Sectors Shared in It. By Michael Dermer • Updated October 6, 2026 You can’t afford to risk your business without a Sidekick at your side. [Book a Call →](https://lp.lonelyentrepreneur.com/meetings/victoria-sherman/sidekick-call) Nonemployer Statistics for 2024 came out on September 29. Transportation is still the biggest single line in the growth, but it is a minority of it: outside transportation the count of businesses with no employees rose more than 4% in a year, in fifteen of seventeen sectors. Quick Answer The Census Bureau’s newest count of businesses with no paid employees — Nonemployer Statistics for 2024, published September 29, 2026 — puts the number at **31,985,874**, up 1,558,066 or 5.1% from 30,427,808 in 2023. Sixteen of the eighteen sectors grew. Transportation and warehousing added the most, 427,711, which is 27.5% of the total. The other 72.5% came from everywhere else: outside transportation, the count rose 4.3% in a single year. The no-employee business is not one trade. It is most of them. What the numbers say - 31,985,874 businesses with no employees in 2024, against 30,427,808 in 2023: +1,558,066, or 5.1%. - Sixteen of eighteen sectors grew. Agriculture was flat (−0.1%) and mining and oil and gas fell 6.1%. - Taxi and limousine service — the industry that includes ridesharing — added 225,900, 14.5% of the national increase. - Management, scientific and technical consultants added 105,820 (+9.8%). Computer systems design lost 8,443 (−2.5%), the largest fall of any industry the file breaks out. - Used-merchandise retailers grew 23.5%, the fastest of any industry with 100,000 or more of these businesses. ## Sixteen sectors up, one flat, one down Read the sector table top to bottom and almost every line goes the same way. Transportation and warehousing grew fastest, +10.5%. Accommodation and food services grew +8.6%, utilities +8.5% on a small base, administrative and support services +6.1%. Construction grew +4.3%, retail +4.6%, professional and technical services +3.9%. At the bottom, agriculture and forestry moved by 292 businesses out of a quarter of a million — flat — and mining and oil and gas is the one sector that clearly shrank, −6.1%. The Data Change in businesses with no employees, 2023 to 2024, in each of the eighteen sectors Transportation and warehousing+10.5%Accommodation and foodservices+8.6%Utilities+8.5%Information+6.5%Administrative and supportservices+6.1%Retail trade+4.6%Repair, personal and otherservices+4.6%Construction+4.3%Finance and insurance+4.2%Health care and socialassistance+4.0%Arts, entertainment andrecreation+4.0%Professional and technicalservices+3.9%Manufacturing+3.7%Educational services+3.5%Wholesale trade+3.0%Real estate and leasing+2.9%Agriculture and forestry−0.1%Mining and oil and gas−6.1%- All eighteen sectors are shown, and they sum exactly to the national totals in both years. The Census file publishes no single line for manufacturing, retail or transportation, so those three are summed from their published sub-sectors. Bars are drawn on a scale of ±12%; the printed figures are the true ones. Slate marks growth and orange marks a fall — the colour names the direction, not whether it is good news. Agriculture’s change is too small to draw and is shown at the minimum width. U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and 2023, United States files (nonemp24us, released September 29, 2026; nonemp23us), all legal forms, establishment counts, retrieved October 5, 2026 from www2.census.gov. All establishments, all legal forms, eighteen-sector partition. > Outside transportation, the count still rose 4.3% in one year. ## Where the 1.56 million came from Transportation is the biggest line and it is still a minority of the story. Of the 1,558,066 net new businesses with no employees, transportation and warehousing supplied 27.5%. Administrative and support services — cleaning, landscaping, office support — supplied 11.3%, professional and technical services 10.1%, repair, personal and other services 9.4%, construction 8.0%. Strip transportation out entirely and the remaining 26,370,681 businesses grew by 1,130,355, or 4.3%. Our earlier piece on the decade showed that more than a third of the new solo businesses of the last ten years drive or deliver; the 2024 count says the rest of the solo economy is growing too. The Data Share of the 2024 net increase, by sector Transportation andwarehousing+427,711 businesses27.5%Administrative and supportservices+176,578 businesses11.3%Professional and technicalservices+158,121 businesses10.1%Repair, personal and otherservices+146,084 businesses9.4%Construction+125,073 businesses8.0%Retail trade+96,450 businesses6.2%Real estate and leasing+93,040 businesses6.0%Health care and socialassistance+91,877 businesses5.9%The other ten sectorscombined+243,132 businesses, net15.6% Each bar is a sector’s net change as a share of the national net increase of 1,558,066. The eight largest contributors are shown individually; the last bar combines the other ten, net of the two that fell. Bars sit on a 0 to 30% scale. Orange marks transportation, the subject of our earlier piece; slate marks everything else. The bars sum to 100%. U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and 2023, United States files (nonemp24us, released September 29, 2026; nonemp23us), all legal forms, establishment counts, retrieved October 5, 2026 from www2.census.gov. ## Inside the sectors: consultants up, computer systems design down The file breaks out 169 industries at the next level of detail, covering about 89% of these businesses. Of those, 148 grew, 20 shrank and one did not move. Taxi and limousine service — the NAICS industry that, since 2022, includes ridesharing — added 225,900. Services to buildings and dwellings added 107,913. Third was management, scientific and technical consulting, up 105,820 or +9.8%. In the same professional-services sector, computer systems design went the other way: down 8,443, or −2.5%, the largest fall of any industry the file breaks out. The next largest was health and personal care retailers, down 8,077. And among industries with at least 100,000 of these businesses, the fastest grower was used-merchandise retail, +23.5% to 172,806. The Data The eight largest industry gains, 2023 to 2024 Taxi and Limousine Service+16.4%, to 1,602,297+225,900Services to Buildings andDwellings+6.0%, to 1,911,817+107,913Management, Scientific, andTechnical ConsultingServices+9.8%, to 1,187,781+105,820Personal Care Services+4.8%, to 1,539,712+71,074Residential BuildingConstruction+6.9%, to 897,780+57,987Activities Related to RealEstate+5.2%, to 926,468+45,914Offices of Other HealthPractitioners+6.8%, to 665,002+42,606Lessors of Real Estate+3.1%, to 1,380,438+41,294 Industries are NAICS 2022 four-digit codes, with titles taken from the Census NAICS code list. The 169 industries the file publishes at this level cover about 89% of businesses with no employees, so these rows are the largest gains among those, not a full ranking. Bars sit on a 0 to 250,000-business scale. Orange marks taxi and limousine service; slate marks the rest. U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and 2023, United States files (nonemp24us, released September 29, 2026; nonemp23us), all legal forms, establishment counts, retrieved October 5, 2026 from www2.census.gov. Four-digit NAICS industries. ## What this means if you work alone If you run a business with no employees, yours is one of 31,985,874, and that count grew by more than a million and a half in one year. That is a market — for the software, the accountants, the insurers and the communities built for you — and it is a crowd you compete inside. The growth is not one gig platform: fifteen sectors outside transportation added businesses, and consultants added more than a hundred thousand. Three limits are worth stating. Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses from tax returns that show receipts of at least $1,000 (construction has a lower floor) and no payroll, so a side business with a few thousand dollars of sales counts the same as a full-time practice. It counts businesses, not people. And it says nothing about the survival of any of them — one year of growth is one year. The Data Where the numbers land 31.99M businesses with no paid employees in 2024 16 of 18 sectors where the count grew 4.3% growth outside transportation and warehousing +9.8% management, scientific and technical consultants, the third-largest industry gain U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2024 and 2023, United States files (nonemp24us, released September 29, 2026; nonemp23us), all legal forms, establishment counts, retrieved October 5, 2026 from www2.census.gov. ## Frequently Asked Questions How many businesses have no employees in the US? 31,985,874 in 2024, according to the Census Bureau's Nonemployer Statistics, published September 29, 2026. That is up 1,558,066, or 5.1%, from 30,427,808 in 2023. Is the growth in businesses with no employees just ridesharing and delivery? No. Transportation and warehousing supplied 27.5% of the 2024 increase. Outside it, the count rose 4.3%, and fifteen of the other seventeen sectors grew. Which kinds of solo business grew fastest in 2024? By sector, transportation and warehousing (+10.5%) and accommodation and food services (+8.6%). Among industries with at least 100,000 of these businesses, used-merchandise retail grew fastest, +23.5%. Did any solo industries shrink? Twenty of the 169 industries the file breaks out did. The largest fall was computer systems design, down 8,443 (−2.5%); next was health and personal care retailers, down 8,077. Mining and oil and gas was the only sector that clearly shrank. What counts as a nonemployer business? A business with no paid employees that files a federal tax return showing at least $1,000 in receipts; construction has a lower floor. The Census Bureau counts businesses, not owners. Keep reading [More Than a Third of the New Solo Businesses of the Last Decade Drive or Deliver](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-new-solo-businesses-deliver/) - [The Average Business With No Employees Takes In $57,611. At Least Three in Four Take In Less.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-average-nobody-reaches/) - [Ten Years Ago, Three in Four Solo Businesses Made Money. Now It’s Just Over Two in Three.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-solo-business-profit-share/) Part of the entrepreneurial struggle: [Growth](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/entrepreneur-struggle/growth/) ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png) Published by **The Lonely Entrepreneur** — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. [lonelyentrepreneur.com](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/) This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.