Census Women-Owned Firm Counts Depend on a 51 Percent Test and Which Firms Are Surveyed

A women-owned count depends on two choices: how much of a firm women must own before it counts, and which firms the survey covers at all. Readers who compare one year with another need both choices in view before they set the numbers side by side.

This explainer sets out the Census definition of a women-owned firm, the scope of the 2002 count and of the two employer-firm releases from 2023 and 2024, and how those figures relate to one another. Each figure is given with its reference year.

The 51 Percent Test for a Women-Owned Firm

In the Census Bureau’s 2002 Survey of Business Owners, a firm counted as women-owned when women held 51 percent or more of its interest or stock. The test is a majority test, measured by ownership stake. A firm split evenly between women and men does not meet it.

Firms owned equally by men and women were reported in their own category rather than added to the women-owned total. The 2002 publication listed about 2.7 million such firms, with $731.7 billion in receipts. Keeping that group separate means the women-owned total and the equally owned total are reported as distinct numbers.

In the 2002 publication’s comparison with all U.S. businesses, publicly held corporations and firms whose sex of ownership is indeterminate were excluded from the base. A reader comparing a share in one table with a share in another should check whether those exclusions were applied the same way.

The definition matters because it sets the women-owned total. Under that test, a firm with 51 percent women ownership is in the women-owned count, and a firm at 50 percent is not, even though the difference is one percentage point.

December 2024 Employer-Firm Figure
The Census Bureau’s December 19, 2024 release put women-owned firms at about 1.3 million, or 22.3 percent of roughly 5.9 million employer firms, for reference year 2022.

What the 2002 Count Measured

The 2002 publication put women-owned businesses at about 6.5 million nonfarm U.S. businesses, or 28.2 percent of all nonfarm businesses. That share is measured against the full nonfarm base, which is a different base from the employer firms used in the later releases.

Those firms reported about $939.5 billion in receipts, or 4.2 percent of the total, and employed 7.1 million people, or 6.4 percent of employment. The three measures give three different shares: 28.2 percent of businesses, 6.4 percent of employment and 4.2 percent of receipts. Each is a share of its own total, so none of them is a share of the others.

The figures describe the year 2002, and the 2002 Survey of Business Owners is the Census source for the 51 percent definition described above.

The Employer-Firm Releases of 2023 and 2024

A Census release dated October 26, 2023 reported around 1.3 million women-owned firms among roughly 5.9 million employer firms, or 22 percent. That release gave a reference year of 2021 and was based on the 2022 Annual Business Survey.

A release dated December 19, 2024 gave a reference year of 2022 and put the women-owned share at 22.3 percent of employer firms, again around 1.3 million. It estimated women-owned firms’ receipts at $2.1 trillion, their employees at 11.4 million and their annual payroll at $508.5 billion.

The two releases therefore describe different years. The 2023 release gives the share as a whole percent, while the 2024 release gives one decimal place. Both use an employer-firm base of about 5.9 million.

The receipts, employment and payroll figures in the 2024 release are estimates for 2022, not for the year of publication. Each release has to be read with its own reference year.

Later reference years may have been published since the December 2024 release. The figures in this piece are the latest in the two releases reviewed for it.

In the 2002 count, equally male- and female-owned firms were kept out of the women-owned total.

Who Runs the Annual Business Survey

The Annual Business Survey is described on the bureau’s FAQ page as a joint project of the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, within the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Census Bureau.

The same FAQ page lists the National Women’s Business Council among the groups that use the survey’s data to assess the state of women’s business ownership.

The December 2024 release also reports minority-owned firms, defined as any race and ethnicity combination other than non-Hispanic and White. The two groups therefore appear side by side in the same release, using the same employer-firm base.

Reading the 2002 and December 2024 Figures Side by Side

The 2002 share and the 2022 share are not measured on the same base or in the same year. One covers all nonfarm U.S. businesses in 2002, and the other covers employer firms in 2022. Put together, they should not be read as a trend line.

A figure from a Census release should be matched to three details before it is compared with another: the ownership threshold, the universe of firms and the reference year. Each one can change what a number means.

The 2002 publication shows why one number may not tell the full story. The share of firms, the share of employment and the share of receipts are reported separately, and they differ in size.

The 51 percent threshold described here comes from the 2002 publication. The threshold for the current Annual Business Survey has not been confirmed for this piece.

For a founder or lender reading a women-owned share from one release, the figure describes the firms in that release’s universe and reference year, and no other.