Small Business Statistics for 2026: How Many There Are, How Long They Last and How They Market

Fourteen small business figures and the agency or survey behind each

Government agencies count businesses. Surveys ask owners what they do. Both are useful, and they answer different questions, so this table keeps them apart. Each figure was opened on the publisher's own page in October 2026. It belongs to our marketing statistics library, which keeps the same rules on every page: organization, date, sample, link.

Nine rows come from federal statistical agencies. The Federal Reserve, Chamber and LocaliQ rows come from surveys of owners rather than counts, and LocaliQ sells marketing services to the kind of business it surveyed. Keep that split in mind when a number moves from this table into a pitch deck.

Small means five different things, depending on who is counting

The Census Bureau, quoting the SBA, describes a small business as an independent firm with fewer than 500 employees, which is the line behind the employer firm count above. For federal contracting, the SBA uses something else: size standards set for each industry code, based on either employees or average annual receipts.

The surveys pick their own lines. The Federal Reserve's Small Business Credit Survey covers employer firms with 1 to 499 employees. The U.S. Chamber's technology report draws the line at 250. LocaliQ gives no size cutoff and reports some results for firms of 10 or fewer employees. The Fed survey leaves out, by design, the 30 million nonemployers: businesses with no payroll, such as the solo trade, the consultant and the side business with a tax ID.

• Nonemployers: 30.4 million in 2023 with nearly $1.8 trillion in revenue, about 6.4% of GDP, per Census.
• Very small employers: Census found 55.7% of employer establishments had fewer than five employees in 2022, per its 2025 small business summary.
• Employer firms under 500: 5.58 million in 2023, the group the Census and SBA definition describes.
• Survey samples: whatever the publisher chose, which is why two surveys can disagree without either being wrong.

Openings, closings and the year that costs the most

New businesses keep arriving. BLS counted 988,310 new private establishments in the year to March 2024, against 677,876 in the year to March 2015, and Census counted 534,947 business applications in September 2026 after seasonal adjustment, up 0.5% from August. An application is not a business. The Bureau defines it as an application for an employer identification number made mainly for business purposes, and only some of them ever turn into a company with payroll. Census tracks the likelier ones separately as high-propensity applications.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics follows new establishments from birth. Of those that opened in the year ending March 2020, 80.9% were still operating a year later and 51.4% after five years. The newest cohort, opened in the year to March 2024, kept 77.9% through its first year. The 2015 cohort shows the long view: 34.7% were still open in March 2025, ten years on.

Roughly one new establishment in five closes before its first birthday, so the first year of marketing is the money that has to come back fastest.

Note the unit. BLS counts establishments, meaning locations, and a closed location is not always a failed company. Still, the shape is the same for every cohort in the BLS table: the steepest drop comes in year one and the losses slow after that. For a new owner, that argues for marketing that pays back inside months, not years: a complete Google profile, more Google reviews, referrals and a site that turns visits into calls (our small business website checklist covers the basics). Our list of marketing ideas for small businesses sorts them by cost and hours.

Twenty, forty-six or sixty-six percent: three answers on AI use

Ask how many small businesses use AI and you can pick your answer. All three of these surveys were run carefully. They asked different people different questions.

The Census figure is the most representative and the most conservative. It also shows size matters: 37% of firms with 250 or more employees used AI, while fewer than 20% of firms with four or fewer employees did, and use did not change significantly for firms under 20 employees. Census changed its question wording in November 2025, so earlier readings are not a clean comparison. The Chamber's 66% is up from 58% in 2025 and 23% in 2023, by its own count.

What the owners use it for is less disputed. Among the Fed's AI users, 83% used it for writing or marketing, the most common task. LocaliQ found nearly 60% of the small businesses it surveyed use AI for some part of their marketing, and 81% of those use it to create content. Our guide to AI writing covers where that saves time and where it costs trust, and the AI marketing statistics page tracks consumer use.

Marketing on less than a thousand dollars a month

LocaliQ's second annual small business marketing survey, with more than 300 owners, describes a familiar operation: a small budget run by a busy person. 52% spend under $1,000 a month on marketing, and businesses with 10 or fewer employees were 55% more likely to spend under $500. Half have no employee dedicated to marketing at all.

LocaliQ sells marketing services to exactly these businesses, so a finding that marketing is hard and leads are scarce is not a surprise. The sample is also small, and the report does not give its survey dates. Treat it as a well-described snapshot, not a census.

Two other numbers frame the channel choice. The Chamber found search engines and social media are the most used technology in small businesses, just ahead of generative AI chatbots. And Census measured e-commerce at 17.1% of US retail sales in the second quarter of 2026, worth $340.2 billion, so for a retailer the store window is increasingly a product page. Our guides to email marketing for small businesses and SEO for small businesses cover two of the cheaper channels in depth, and how to advertise your business prices the paid ones.

Costs are the worry, so marketing has to show its receipts

In the two largest owner surveys here, the top worry is costs, not customers. In the Fed's 2025 survey, rising costs of goods, services or wages was the most common financial challenge, and 60% of firms applied for financing in the previous twelve months. The Chamber's 2026 survey found inflation was the top challenge, cited by 32% of small businesses, up 9 points from 2025.

When every invoice is under suspicion, a marketing line item that cannot show what it produced is an easy one to cut. That is the practical case for tracking before spending: calls and forms recorded by source, a monthly look at cost per lead, and a marketing plan with a number attached to each channel. DataCram sets up call and form tracking for exactly this reason, because an owner who can see which channel rang the phone stops guessing.

How to read these numbers before quoting one

1. 1

   Ask whether it was counted or surveyed

   Census business counts and BLS survival rates are built from government records of real businesses. The AI and marketing rows are surveys, reporting what owners say. Both are evidence; only the first is a count.

2. 2

   Check the unit

   Firms, establishments and applications are three different things. BLS survival rates follow locations, Census business applications are EIN filings, and a firm can own many establishments.

3. 3

   Find the size cutoff

   Under 500, under 250, 10 or fewer, or no employees at all. A statistic about small business means little until you know which small.

4. 4

   Look at how the sample was found

   A random sample can describe the country. A convenience sample or a vendor's customer list describes the people who answered. The Fed says plainly that its survey is not random, which is to its credit.

5. 5

   Check who published it and what they sell

   A marketing services company will find owners need marketing help. It may be right. Read its sample size and dates before its conclusions.

6. 6

   Match the date to the question

   AI adoption figures from 2023 describe a different market. Survival rates need years to mature, so the newest five-year figure is always about businesses opened five years ago.

From national averages to your own scoreboard

None of these figures will tell you whether your marketing works. They tell you what is normal: a small budget, no marketing staff, referrals doing the heavy lifting, AI drafting the copy. The useful question is where your business sits against that, and the numbers that answer it are yours: calls by source, reviews against competitors, where you appear in local search.

Two free starting points: the website audit checks speed, SEO, mobile and content and emails a report with fixes, and the local visibility check shows where you appear in Google search and maps for your customers' terms. When you would rather hand it off, DataCram's local marketing plans start at $500 a month with a defined scope and no long contract, and the local SEO statistics page shows what customers do before they call anyone.