Economic Census Programs

Purpose

Every five years the Census Bureau conducts an economic census to provide comprehensive statistics about the structure and functioning of the U.S. economy.

Coverage and Content

The statistical unit for economic census programs is the "establishment", which is a business or industrial unit at a single-physical location that produces or distributes goods or performs services

• The census covers retail trade; wholesale trade; service industries; construction industries; transportation, communications, and utilities; financial, insurance, and real estate; manufactures; and mineral industries;
• The census includes special programs and surveys of enterprise statistics, women- and minority-owned business enterprises, and characteristics of business owners.
• All establishments provide type-of-business activity, physical location, form of ownership, dollar volume of business, number of employees, and amount of payroll.
• Other industry-specific questions are asked depending upon the type of activity or industry.
  
  

Frequency

The economic census is conducted every five years in years ending in "2" and "7". 

Products

• Geographic Area Series (published for all sectors) provide detail for establishments with employees, for the U.S., states, and counties, and economic places. ZIP Code Statistics are published for some, but not all, sectors.
• Non-employer Statistics  complement the geographic area reports for establishments without paid employees.
• Industry Series (manufactures, mining, and construction) provide national totals on groups of related industries and their products, with limited data for states.
• Subject Series (all sectors) provide U.S. and limited state and metropolitan area data on special topics including merchandise line sales, concentration ratios in manufacturing, and establishment and firm size.
  
  

More Information

For more information about economic censuses from the Census Bureau:

• http://www.census.gov/econ/census02/