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A week before National Small Business Week, a new study examines some surprising things the millions of small businesses in the U.S. have in common.
A Pew Research Center survey released Monday looked at data points from the Census Bureau related to 33 million small businesses in the United States. The study defined “small business” as a company with fewer than 500 employees and at least one location.
According to the report, small businesses overwhelmingly had one major thing in common: They rarely had employees. In fact, 27 million, or about 82%, had no employees, and about 3 million companies with employees had only one to four people on their payroll.
Still, small businesses employed 56.4 million people and generated more than $16.2 trillion in revenue in 2021. Larger companies with more than 100 employees accounted for a larger share of sales, although they accounted for less than 1% of total sales.
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Additionally, according to the survey, most small businesses are not mom-and-pop shops. One in 10 businesses in the U.S. were equally owned and operated by spouses, and overall only 27% were family owned.
Normally these are not franchises either. The majority of small businesses (95%) reported that they were not fully or partially franchised.
The majority of companies surveyed, nearly three in five, have been in existence for at least six years, and 15% have been in operation for more than a quarter century.
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Small businesses also share positive public perception. Most Americans (86%) said in a separate Pew Research survey in January that small businesses have a positive impact on the country. In contrast, only 53% thought positively about technology companies and universities.
A Constant Contact survey released Monday paints a global picture, showing that over 80% of the 1,300 small businesses surveyed in the U.S., Australia, U.K. and Canada expressed concerns about how the economic climate will impact their business this year.
Pew Research reports that the number of U.S. business applications has trended upward, with nearly 1.8 million applications filed last year.
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