black_business_web.jpg

The number of black-owned businesses in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metropolitan statistical area increased by 69.9 percent, from 58,559 in 2002 to 99,512 in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau announced. Over the same period, receipts generated by these businesses increased 61.8 percent to $4.9 billion.
Nationally, the number of black-owned businesses rose to 1.9 million, a 60.5 percent increase, and sales by these businesses increased to $137.5 billion, a 55.1 percent increase.
Industries in the metro area with the largest number of black-owned businesses included health care and social assistance (21,267 businesses); repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services (20,808 businesses); and administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (12,050 businesses).
The new data come from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners, which is part of the 2007 Economic Census. The survey provides detailed information every five years for black-owned businesses, including the number of firms, sales and receipts, number of paid employees and annual payroll for states, counties, cities and metropolitan areas.
“Black-owned businesses continued to be one of the fastest-growing segments of our economy, showing rapid growth in both the number of businesses and total sales during this time period," Census Bureau Deputy Director Thomas Mesenbourg said.
The data are presented by geographic area (nation, state, county, city and metro), industry and size of business. Preliminary national and state data were released in July 2010.
In 2007, nearly four in 10 black-owned businesses nationally operated in the healthcare and social assistance and in repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services sectors. The retail trade and healthcare and social assistance sectors accounted for 27.4 percent of black-owned business revenue.
Among states, Florida had 181,437 businesses or 9.4 percent of the number of black-owned businesses in the U.S.  New York had 204,032 or 10.6 percent and Georgia, 183,874 or 9.6 percent.
Among counties, Cook, Ill., had the most black-owned businesses, with 83,733, accounting for 4.4 percent of all the nation's black-owned businesses. Los Angeles followed, with 59,680 (3.1 percent) and Kings, NY, with 52,705 businesses (2.7 percent).
Among cities, New York had the most black-owned businesses, with 154,929  (8.1 percent of all the nation's black-owned businesses), followed by Chicago, 58,631 (3.1 percent), Houston, 33,062 (1.7 percent) and Detroit, 32,490 (1.7 percent). 

Other highlights from the report:

• Of the 1.9 million black-owned businesses in 2007, 106,824 had paid employees, an increase of 13 percent from 2002. These businesses employed 921,032 people, an increase of 22.2 percent; and their payrolls totaled $23.9 billion, an increase of 36.3 percent. Receipts from black-owned employer businesses totaled $98.9 billion, an increase of 50.2 percent from 2002.

• In 2007, 1.8 million black-owned businesses had no paid employees, an increase of 64.5 percent from 2002. These non-employee businesses' receipts totaled $38.6 billion, an increase of 69.0 percent. The number of black-owned businesses with receipts of $1 million or more increased by 35.4 percent to 14,507 between 2002 and 2007.

This story includes material provided by PRNewswire-USNewswire.