U.S. small businesses
Firms with fewer than 500 employees, including nonemployers.
Know how the number was made
A useful finding keeps its population, calculation, and limits close enough to check.
Follow the calculation2022 Census data
Published together in the SBA’s 2025 profile.
Not a live business list
No individual owner’s intent or financial position is implied.
Simple arithmetic.
Visible assumptions.
The share of small businesses without paid employees uses two counts from the same table and the same period.
Read the finding29,811,495nonemployer small businesses
36,186,089all small businesses
36,186,089all small businesses
× 100 = 82.4%
Different evidence.
Different meaning.
A calculated share is not a directly reported source value. Missing information is never converted to zero.
Reported
A value stated in the named source.
Calculated
Arithmetic using specified source values.
Unknown
The source does not provide enough evidence.
Not reported
The source withholds or does not publish the value.
Keep the comparisons fair.
Use the same unit, population, period, and basis. A newer edition can revise earlier measurements without describing a sudden change in the economy.
What is included in these figures?
The published national and Indiana profile totals and eight selected industry rows. Business counts combine the profile’s nonemployer and employer categories. The selected industry rows are not used to reconstruct the all-industry total.
What is excluded?
Private business-level information, sensitive owner information, inferred sale intent, business-level valuations, unsupported location counts, and unpublished demographic estimates.
How are missing or suppressed values handled?
A source’s “not reported” or “not available” is preserved as a distinct state. It is not treated as zero, silently estimated, or added to a denominator without a stated method.
How should a revision change my decision?
Check the affected measure, period, source edition, and reason for the change. A wording correction, a corrected input, and a new measurement are different events.
See editions and corrections