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How many small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are there in the United States (where SME is defined as a non-subsidiary, independent firm which employs fewer than 250 people)?
Hello, and thank you for your question about the number of small and medium sized enterprises in the U.S. which are non-subsidiary, independent firms employing less than 250 people. The best sources to answer your question include U.S. government census data and trusted industry reports. The short answer is that there are approximately 27,576,329 independent businesses in the U.S. with fewer than 250 employees. A review of my findings follows.
ECONOMIC REPORTS
The U.S. government conducts and economic census every five years, with the next census occurring in 2017. Since this source of data is nearly 5 years old, I searched for more current information and located the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy report published in February, 2015. The report reflects 2014 numbers as follows:
These figures are in line with a 2017 estimate of 28.8 million businesses that fit this category. The large number of businesses with no employees are staffed by self-employed individuals.
DEFINING SMALL- AND MEDIUM- BUSINESSES
Subsidiaries and satellite locations of larger companies are not counted in government data of small- and medium-sized businesses. However, the U.S. employment threshold for this category of business is 500 employees. To determine the number of employees at firms with less than 250 employees, I used a quarterly report from the department of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from Q1 2016 and found the total to be 54,353,000.
CALCULATIONS
To calculate the number of businesses with less than 250 employees in the U.S., I prorated the total number businesses with less than 500 employees as follows:
There are roughly 27,576,329 independent businesses in the U.S. with fewer than 250 employees.
CONCLUSION
To wrap up, there are approximately 27,576,329 independent businesses in the U.S. with fewer than 250 employees. Small businesses account for 99.7% of all businesses in the U.S..
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