Trends for Business and Industry

Trends in business are reflected in the surveys the Census conducts.

Home-based businesses, electronic- commerce ("e-commerce"), and minority-owned businesses are just three examples of recent trends that are changing the face of business and industry throughout the country.

A Nation Online

With computers now almost as common in American homes as cable television service, the Internet continues to expand in importance as a communication, information, entertainment, and transaction tool. One sure sign of growing reliance on this medium is the dramatic jump in high-speed, or broadband, Internet connections. The number of households willing to pay a premium over the cost of a basic dial-up connection for broadband access more than doubled between September 2001 and October 2003, growing from 9.9 million to 22.4 million. Underlying this growth is an evolution in the way people are connecting to the Internet. One in five (19.9 percent) U.S. households and over one-third (36.5 percent) of Internet households now have a high-speed connection, while the number of U.S. households using dial-up service declined by almost 13 percent between 2001 and 2003.

E-Business

E-commerce outperformed total economic activity in three of four major economic sectors measured between 2000 and 2001. Business-to-Business (B-to-B) activity dominated e-commerce.

The volume of e-commerce -- both in dollar value and share of economic activity -- varied markedly among key economic sectors. Manufacturing led all industry sectors, with e-commerce shipments that accounted for 18.3 percent ($725 billion) of the total value of manufacturing shipments. Merchant wholesalers ranked second with e-commerce sales that represented 10 percent ($270 billion) of their total sales.

Retail trade, which has been the focus of much e-commerce attention, had e-commerce sales in 2001 of $34 billion, but that was only 1.1 percent of total retail sales.

Minority Owned Businesses

In 1997, there were 3.0 million minority-owned businesses in the United States, employing 4.5 million people and generating $591.3 billion in revenues. These firms made up 15 percent of the Nation's 20.8 million nonfarm businesses, employed 4 percent of its workers, and generated 3 percent of its receipts.

Hispanics or Latinos owned 1.2 million (or 40 percent of minority-owned businesses), more than any other group. Their firms generated $186.3 billion in revenues.

Asians and Pacific Islanders owned 913,000 businesses, accounting for revenues of $306.9 billion, which led all groups.

African Americans or Blacks were owners of 823,000 businesses, generating $71.2 billion in revenues.

American Indians and Alaska Natives owned 197,000 firms, producing $34.3 billion in revenues.

Minority Firms Draw Minority Customers

Forty-four percent of African American-owned businesses reported that more than half their customers were minorities; Hispanic-owned firms reported 33 percent; Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Alaska Native firms, 26 percent; and nonminority male firms, 9 percent.