Data Shows Significant Growth in Black Employers in the United States

In 2023, the number of Black-owned employer businesses in the United States surpassed 200,000 for the first time, according to a Brookings analysis of Census Bureau data. These businesses generated a cumulative $249 billion in revenue, supplied over 1.8 million jobs, and paid out $69.8 billion in salaries.

Black-owned employer businesses have experienced substantial growth in recent years. From 2017 to 2023, the number of Black-owned employer businesses grew by 62 percent (77,000 firms). Over the same time period, overall growth in U.S. employer businesses was just 3.3 percent. Despite these major gains, Black-owned employer businesses represent just 3.4 percent of all employer businesses in the country as of 2023.

Within the Black population, Black woman-owned employer businesses have surged, rising from less than 45,000 firms in 2017 to 79,000 firms in 2023. Currently, Black women own 1.3 percent of all U.S. employer businesses. From 2017 to 2023, the number of Black woman-owned employer firms grew by 78 percent, compared to 62 percent for all Black-owned employer firms, and 60 percent for Black man-owned employers.

Half of all Black-owned businesses are concentrated in five industries: health care and social assistance; professional, scientific, and technical services; social assistance; administrative and support services; and waste management and remediation services. The industry with the highest share of Black business ownership is transit and ground passenger transportation (13.7 percent). In contrast, the industries with the lowest share of Black employers are machinery and manufacturing, mining support, fabricated metal manufacturing, textile products, and textile mills.

Notably, the 2017-2023 growth in Black employers varies by metro area, with the largest gains seen in Atlanta, Miami, New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. However, of the 116 metro areas that saw overall growth in Black employer firms from 2017 to 2023, only 72 saw growth in the most recent year of data. In Atlanta, there was a decline of 600 Black employer firms from 2022 to 2023. Other metro areas with the largest losses in Black-owned employer firms were San Francisco, Raleigh, Charlotte, and Virginia Beach.

Conversely, Houston, New York, Miami, Minneapolis, and Indianapolis experienced the largest gains in Black employer business from 2022 to 2023. Additionally, some smaller metro areas gained lower numbers of Black-owned businesses, yet had large growth relative to their size. In Flint, Michigan, 205 Black-owned employer firms were established between 2017 and 2023, with 170 of those firms launching between 2022 and 2023.