Center for Economic Studies (CES)

The Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) has become one of the most frequently requested datasets in the secure Census Research Data Centers (RDCs). By itself or linked to other Census products the LBD provides important new insights about business formation and growth, the nature of competition, labor market dynamics, the nature of business cycles, the sources of productivity growth and the connections to credit markets and financing to name a few. The LBD and Business Dynamic Statistics (BDS) are unique among U.S. longitudinal business databases in providing consistent measures of economic activity at both the establishment and the firm level over a long period of time.

The LBD is a census of business establishments and firms in the U.S. with paid employees comprised of survey and administrative records. The LBD covers all industries and all U.S. States.