More than 1-in-4 owners of U.S. businesses with paid employees are women, 1-in-4 have a high school education or less and nearly two-thirds are at least 45 years old, according to preliminary information from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2002 Survey of Business Owners (SBO).

     The SBO data were released in the Advance Report on Characteristics of Employer Business Owners: 2002, which details the economic and demographic characteristics of the owners of businesses with paid employees operating in the United States. These businesses were asked to report information about the characteristics of up to three individuals with the largest share of ownership; additional owners were not surveyed regarding characteristics. The data represent the characteristics of approximately 7.7 million owners.

     Owners had the option of selecting more than one race and are included in all races they selected. Of those responding to the survey, 88 percent identified themselves as white, 6 percent as Asian, 2 percent as black, 0.5 percent as American Indian or Alaska native and 0.1 percent as native Hawaiian or other Pacific islander. Four percent identified themselves as Hispanic (who can be of any race).

     About 48 percent of the owners reported owning a majority of the interest or equity in the business: 75 percent of these owners were male, 21 percent were female and 4 percent did not report their gender. About 52 percent reported owning one-half or less of the interest or equity in the business: 67 percent were male, 31 percent were female and 2 percent did not report their gender.

Highlights about employer-business owners:

• About 71 percent of owners of businesses with paid employees are men, 26 percent are women and 3 percent did not report their gender.
• About 71 percent had at least some college education at the time they started or acquired ownership in their company, 24 percent had a bachelor's degree and 19 percent had a graduate degree. About 1-in-4 had a high school education or less.
• Asian and black business owners were more likely to hold graduate degrees when they started or acquired ownership in their business (about 1-in-4) than the national average (19 percent).
• Two-thirds of owners reported their business as their primary source of income.
• Fourteen percent of owners were veterans.
• About half (49 percent) reported spending more than 40 hours per week managing or working in their business, with 1-in-5 (19 percent) devoting 60 or more hours.

     The SBO is part of the 2002 Economic Census. Separate reports for minority- and women-owned businesses will be issued over the next 18 months and will include data on number of firms, sales and receipts, number of paid employees and annual payroll. Data will also be presented by geographic area, industry and size of business. The characteristics data presented in this report will be updated in subsequent reports.

-X-

The preliminary estimates are based on responses from owners from a stratified random sample of 1.5 million firms with paid employees, whose data were then weighted to represent the complete universe of about 6 million firms. Approximately 80 percent of the employer firms in the sample responded to the survey.

The estimates in this report are subject to sampling variability as well as nonsampling errors. Sources of nonsampling error include errors of response, nonreporting and coverage. Further details concerning survey design, methodology and data limitations are available in the full report.