Expanded Coverage

The 1997 owners of 2.5 million businesses are being surveyed compared to the previous 1992 surveys of 1.2 million businesses. This increased 1997 sample is due to the inclusion of "C" corporations to provide more detailed comprehensive estimates for both minority- and women-owned businesses; meet the need for reliable estimates at the state level by 2-digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code; and provide better estimates for American Indian-owned businesses. A "C" corporation is a legally incorporated business under state laws. Unlike a subchapter S corporation a "C" corporation has no restrictions. "C" corporations account for approximately 75 percent of all U.S. business receipts.

Faster publication via the Internet

Census results will become available on the Internet faster than they have ever before been published.

Better software

Access software on both CD-ROM and the Internet will be easier to use and will have more capabilities than the software on the 1992 CD-ROM.
To purchase the 1997 CD-ROM click here CD-ROM.

Three new publications

1997 Economic Census - Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises: Asians and Pacific Islanders; and
1997 Economic Census - Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises: American Indians and Alaska Natives and
1997 Economic Census - Company Summary - Count of all businesses in the United States by race, ethnicity and gender.

Minority/Women Ownership definition changes

Minority/women ownership of a business in 1997 was determined based on the race/ethnicity/gender of the person(s) owning majority interest in the business.   Previously, ownership was determined based on the majority of the number of owners, without regard to percentage of interest owned.

Male/female equally owned businesses tabulated separately

Businesses with 50 percent or more women owners have in the past been included in the women business counts.  In the 1997 SWOBE, business equally male-/female-owned were excluded from the women-owned business counts and tabulated in a separate chapter of the women-owned business report.

Minority/nonminority joint ownership tabulated separately

Businesses in which ownership was shared among minority and nonminority groups with no single racial/ethnic group having majority interest were excluded from the minority business counts and tabulated as 50 percent minority-/50 percent nonminority-owned in the Company Summary publication.  This report will provide a summary of all businesses in the United States by race, ethnicity and gender.

Expanded sample redesign

In the past, a small sample of the cases placed on the non-Hispanic white male frame was taken to estimate the number of firms owned by persons of minority ancestry when no indication of minority ownership was found from any of the sources used in stratification.   The estimates from this sample were presented in a separate section of the Asian- and Pacific Islander-, American Indian- and Alaska Native-owned business publication and the Hispanic-owned business publication as an estimate of the undercount and were excluded from the detailed tables.  In the 1997 SMOBE and SWOBE, the estimates from this part of the sample were included in the detailed tables of the publications.

        Source:
        U.S. Census Bureau,
        Company Statistics Division 301.457.3316
        Revised August 2003

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