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Business Formation Statistics

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The Business Formation Statistics (BFS) are an experimental data product of the U.S. Census Bureau developed in research collaboration with economists affiliated with Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, University of Maryland, and University of Notre Dame. The BFS provide timely and high frequency information on new business applications and formations in the United States. More information on Census Bureau Experimental Data products can be found here.

NEW Click here to view Annual County Business Applications.


Weekly Data

Business Applications, Not Seasonally Adjusted data will be provided weekly at the national, regional, and state levels for a limited time.


Business Applications data for the Week Ending December 12, 2020 was released on December 17, 2020 and is available in the csv files and data visualization below. For help with using the files, please visit the BFS Weekly Data Dictionary and the week date csv file.

  • Not Adjusted U.S. Business Applications:   CSV [41KB]  
  • Not Adjusted Regional Business Applications:   CSV [168KB]  
  • Not Adjusted State Business Applications:   CSV [1844KB]  

Notice: Week 51 data will be released on Wednesday, December 23, 2020.


Quarterly Report

The Third Quarter 2020 Business Formation Statistics Report was released on October 14, 2020 at 10:00 a.m., and available as:

  • Latest Report:   PDF [263KB]  

Business Application Time Series:

  • 2004Q3 - present (Adjusted and Not Adjusted)    Excel [73kb]


Time Series/Trend Charts logo Time Series/Trend Charts: Use this link to access all Business Application series and Business Formation Series at both U.S. and State levels to create customizable time series. For detailed instructions on using this Time Series/Trend Charts application, please visit the Technical Documentation.



Annual County Data

new! Business Applications by County data will be provided annually.


Business Applications data by county for 2005-2019 were released on November 10, 2020 and are available in the Excel file and data visualization below. For help with using the file, please visit the BFS County Data Dictionary.

  • Business Applications by County:   Excel [367KB]  


Announcements

  • Notice: Starting in 2021, BFS will be released on a monthly basis. 2020 Q4 will be the last quarterly release and January 2021 will be the first monthly release. Click on the release schedule below for dates and times.
  • Notice: Starting with week 27 of the weekly Business Application releases and 2020 Q2 of the quarterly Business Formation Statistics releases, the BFS data will incorporate updated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes for some EIN applications. The Census Bureau periodically receives updated NAICS code information for EIN applications from administrative sources and updates are applied to the BFS data. Changes to application counts may be observed when comparing to data that was published in previous periods.
  • Notice: Business Formation Statistics series are updated annually to revise information on business formations (firm births). While the annual update is typically done in the 3rd quarter of each year, this year's annual update is planned for sometime in 2020 to accommodate the ongoing modernization of the methodology for the Business Dynamic Statistics (BDS) program that generates data on business formations.
  • Notice: On May 13, 2019, the IRS implemented a�change�in�Form SS-4 requiring�a social security number (SSN)�or an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) for the responsible party indicated in the�EIN�application. The�change�will prevent�entities using their existing�EINs to apply for additional�EINs. Please click here for more�information on the requirement�change. The form field�that the�change�applies to�is not one that the Census Bureau receives and it is not�used in the analysis. As a result, we cannot necessarily draw any conclusions on�the impact of this�change�on the BFS.
  • New: Beginning with the release of the 2nd quarter 2019 statistics on July 17, 2019, the format and location of the Business Formation Statistics (BFS) has changed. The BFS was first released as a research product in the Census Bureau's Center for Ecomomic Studies in February 2018. The BFS has been redesigned into a formal release to include accompanying visualizations to highlight important trends in the data, and now has a new home among the monthly and quarterly economic indicators released by the Census Bureau.
  • FRED Mobile App: Receive the latest updates on the nation's key economic indicators by downloading the FRED App for both Apple and Android devices. FRED, the signature database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, now incorporates the Census Bureau's 13 economic indicators.
  • API: The URL for the economic indicators data in the Census Bureau API (Application Programming Interface ) has been updated to add /timeseries/. Examples can be found on the Developers' webpage.

Release Schedule

The Upcoming Release Dates are below:

  • The Quarterly BFS Report (Fourth Quarter 2020) releases January 14, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. Click here to access the 2021 Release Schedule.
  • The Weekly BFS will be released each Thursday by 12:00 p.m. EDT.

Contact Us


Business Formation Statistics Staff:

Email Us!
Call us: (301)763-2000

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Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Business Formation Statistics | 301-763-2000 |   Last Revised: December 14, 2020