Survey of Business Owners: Black-Owned Firms: 2002
U.S. Census Bureau, April 2006
Black Americans are becoming entrepreneurs at a rapidly increasing rate, a new report issued by the Census Bureau suggests. The report, "Survey of Business Owners: Black-Owned Firms: 2002," says that between 1997 and 2002, the number of black-owned businesses in the United States rose 45 percent to 1.2 million, while the combined revenue increased 25 percent to $88.8 billion.
Both local and national figures show the greatest numbers of black-owned businesses in the fields of health care and social assistance. Other categories with a strong presence of black-owned businesses include retail; professional, scientific and technical services; and transportation and warehousing.
New York City had more black-owned firms than any other city at 98,076, followed by Chicago (39,424), Los Angeles (25,958), Houston (21,226), and Detroit (19,530). Among states, New York had the greatest number of black-owned firms with 129,324, followed by California (112,873), Florida (102,079), Georgia (90,461) , and Texas (88,769). These five states accounted for about 44 percent of all black-owned businesses in the United States.
