County Business Patterns is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. The series is useful for studying the economic activity of small areas; analyzing economic changes over time; and as a benchmark for statistical series, surveys, and databases between economic censuses. Businesses use the data for analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. Government agencies use the data for administration and planning.
County Business Patterns covers most of the country's economic activity. The series excludes data on self-employed individuals, employees of private households, railroad employees, agricultural production employees, and most government employees.
This series has been published annually since 1964 and at irregular intervals dating back to 1946. The comparability of data over time may be affected by definitional changes in establishments, activity status, and industrial classifications. For more details on these changes, see the “Comparability With Other Data” section below.
ZIP Code Business Patterns data are available shortly after the release of County Business Patterns and include the number of establishments, number of employees, and payroll data by NAICS industry. ZIP Code Business Patterns data were first tabulated and released to the public in 1994.
Data from County Business Patterns are currently published primarily according to the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The County Business Patterns series includes the following NAICS sectors:
| 11 | Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, and Agricultural Support Services (NAICS 113-115) |
| 21 | Mining |
| 22 | Utilities |
| 23 | Construction |
| 31-33 | Manufacturing |
| 42 | Wholesale Trade |
| 44-45 | Retail Trade |
| 48-49 | Transportation and Warehousing |
| 51 | Information |
| 52 | Finance and Insurance |
| 53 | Real Estate and Rental and Leasing |
| 54 | Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services |
| 55 | Management of Companies and Enterprises |
| 56 | Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services |
| 61 | Educational Services |
| 62 | Health Care and Social Assistance |
| 71 | Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation |
| 72 | Accommodation and Food Services |
| 81 | Other Services (except Public Administration) |
| 99 | Industries Not Classified |
For more information on NAICS, see North American Industry Classification System.
The quinquennial economic censuses are the primary source for industry classifications. The annual Company Organization Survey, Annual Survey of Manufactures, Current Business Surveys, and other Census Bureau programs provide regular updates. Additional sources for assigning industry classifications are the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These sources provide industry classification information for new businesses and businesses not canvassed in the Census Bureau programs. Establishments without sufficient industry information are tabulated in the “Industries Not Classified” group.
County Business Patterns covers all NAICS industries except crop and animal production (NAICS 111,112), rail transportation (NAICS 482), Postal Service (NAICS 491), pension, health, welfare, and vacation funds (NAICS 525110, 525120, 525190), trusts, estates, and agency accounts (NAICS 525920), private households (NAICS 814), and public administration (NAICS 92).
Although most government establishments are excluded from tabulation, County Business Patterns includes government sponsored wholesale liquor establishments (NAICS 4248), retail liquor stores (NAICS 44531), book publishers (511130), federally-chartered savings institutions (NAICS 522120), federally-chartered credit unions (NAICS 522130), and hospitals (NAICS 622).
Historically, the permanent on-site work force at a business location were paid employees of that establishment. This traditional practice of firms directly hiring employees is still the dominant employer/employee relationship in the United States. However, over the past decade a new work force arrangement has emerged.
Under this new arrangement, a company commonly known as a professional employer organization (PEO) or employee leasing company operates in a co-employment relationship with client businesses. Employee leasing establishments typically acquire and lease back some or all of the employees of their clients, and serve as the employer of record of the leased employees for payroll, benefits, and related purposes.
The 2006 County Business Patterns shows over 1.93 million employees in professional employer organizations (NAICS 561330), up from 1.75 million employees published in the 2005 CBP. Clearly, the employees are not classified in the predominant industry of the client businesses. Also, professional employer organizations may pay these employees out of a single payroll office. This may result in the leasing company's employment and payroll data being reported in the county where the payroll office is located, thus distorting the data for that county. In some cases, many thousands of employees may be paid from a single payroll office. Therefore, for geography purposes, we may publish employee-leasing establishments in the “statewide” category in states where such payroll offices are located, as these establishments service multiple counties.
Prior to the 1998 County Business Patterns series, data were published according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. NAICS identifies new industries, redefines concepts, and develops classifications to reflect changes in the economy. While many of the individual NAICS industries correspond directly to industries as defined under the SIC system, most of the higher level groupings do not. Particular care should be taken in comparing data for construction, manufacturing, retail trade, and wholesale trade, which are sector titles used in both the NAICS and SIC systems, but cover somewhat different groups of industries. A description and comparison of the 2002 NAICS and SIC systems can be found in the 2002 NAICS and 1987 SIC Correspondence Tables.
The comparability of data with previous County Business Patterns series may be affected by the following revisions:
Definitional and coverage differences may affect the direct comparison of 2002 Economic Census and County Business Patterns data. See Definitions for an explanation of the data items contained in County Business Patterns.
The 2002 Economic Census generally uses respondent-reported data. County Business Patterns uses administrative record data for small establishments. Although efforts are made to resolve significant differences in the data, differences are known to exist.
Some large companies report different activities at the same location as separate profit centers. The County Business Patterns program treats each profit center as a separate establishment. The 2002 Economic Census may combine the profit centers into one establishment. This results in establishment count differences.
County Business Patterns data are available in hypertext tables and in downloadable data files at the CBP Homepage. The hypertext tables provide data users a quick and easy interface to obtain the number of business locations, number of employees, and payroll data by U.S., state, and county totals. Data can also be quickly compared with that from all 50 states or all counties within a state. Downloadable files of County Business Patterns are available from 1988 through the current year's CBP release.
Starting with the 2004 data year, County Business Patterns (CBP) data is available in American FactFinder. American FactFinder provides data users with tools to filter the CBP data set by the same data groupings previously shown in the CBP publications. The complete CBP data file is also available for free downloading; prior to 2004, the complete CBP data file was only available by purchasing a data disk. Given that complete CBP data is now available through American FactFinder; the Census Bureau is no longer producing CBP data disks or publications. Please see the background information regarding these two products below.
The County Business Patterns data series produced separate printed reports for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the United States through 2004. Individual state reports present payroll and employment data for the state and counties by industry. The reports also include the number of establishments by industry and employment size class.
The United States report presents similar data for the country as a whole. In addition, the U.S. report provides employment and payroll data by employment size class for major industry groups.
Data for industries with fewer than 100 employees, as well as data for detailed industries withheld to avoid disclosing data for individual companies, are not shown in the printed reports. However, these data are available on the County Business Patterns data disks.
County Business Patterns publications for 1993 through 2004 are available in portable document format (pdf). In order to view these files, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader®, which is available for free from
Adobe.
Older County Business Patterns publications, not shown at the link above, can be found at a Federal Depository Library.
The following is a description of the County Business Patterns publications issued through 2004:
Complete County Business Patterns series data are available on disk (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM) for 1986-2004. These data disks include software for creating County Business Patterns data files compatible with popular database and spreadsheet software. You can order County Business Patterns data disks at the following page in the Census Catalog.
ZIP Code Business Patterns data are available on data disk for 1994-2004. You can order ZIP Code Business Patterns data disks at the following page in the Census Catalog.
To order either product by phone, contact the Census Bureau's Marketing Services Office at 301-763-INFO (4636).
County Business Patterns basic data items are extracted from the Business Register, a file of all known single and multiestablishment employer companies maintained and updated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The annual Company Organization Survey provides individual establishment data for multiestablishment companies. Data for single-establishment companies are obtained from various Census Bureau programs, such as the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Current Business Surveys, as well as from administrative record sources.
Most geography codes are derived from the physical location address reported in Census Bureau programs. The Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Labor Statistics provide supplemental address information. Those employers without a fixed location within a state (or of unknown county location) are included under a “statewide” classification at the end of the county tables. This incomplete detail causes only slight understatement of county employment. The independent cities in Virginia, and the cities of Baltimore, MD; Carson City, NV; and St. Louis, MO, are treated as separate counties.
In accordance with U.S. Code, Title 13, Section 9, no data are published that would disclose the operations of an individual employer. However, the number of establishments in an industry classification and the distribution of these establishments by employment-size class are not considered to be disclosures, and so this information may be released even though other information is withheld from publications.
All data are tabulated from universe files and are not subject to sampling errors. However, the data are subject to nonsampling errors. Nonsampling errors can be attributed to many sources: inability to identify all cases in the universe; definition and classification difficulties; differences in interpretation of questions; errors in recording or coding the data obtained; and estimation of employers who reported too late to be included in the tabulations and for records with missing or misreported data.
The accuracy of the data is determined by the joint effects of the various nonsampling errors. No direct measurement of these effects has been obtained; however, precautionary steps were taken in all phases of collection, processing, and tabulation to minimize the effects of nonsampling errors. See Coverage and Methodology for more details.
The following abbreviations and symbols are used with County Business Patterns data:
| – | Represents zero (page image/print only) |
| D | Withheld to avoid disclosing data of individual companies; data are included in higher level totals |
| S | Withheld to avoid releasing data that do not meet publication standards; data are included in broader industry totals. |
| X | Not applicable |
| a | 0 to 19 employees |
| b | 20 to 99 employees |
| c | 100 to 249 employees |
| e | 250 to 499 employees |
| f | 500 to 999 employees |
| g | 1,000 to 2,499 employees |
| h | 2,500 to 4,999 employees |
| i | 5,000 to 9,999 employees |
| j | 10,000 to 24,999 employees |
| k | 25,000 to 49,999 employees |
| l | 50,000 to 99,999 employees |
| m | 100,000 employees or more |
