Annual Business Survey

In an effort to improve the measurement of business dynamics in the United States, the Census Bureau is conducting the Annual Business Survey (ABS), covering reference year 2025. The ABS provides information on selected economic and demographic characteristics for businesses and business owners by sex, ethnicity, race, and veteran status. Further, the survey measures research and development, new business topics such as innovation and technology, as well as other business characteristics such as types of customers, number and types of employees, and sales and revenues. The ABS includes all nonfarm employer businesses filing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms as individual proprietorships, partnerships, or any other type of corporation, with receipts of $1,000 or more. The ABS is co-sponsored by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and conducted by the Census Bureau. Content previously collected on the Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) Survey will now be collected as part of the Annual Business Survey. The BERD survey will no longer be fielded independently.

The latest form for Annual Business Survey expires 2029-05-31 and can be found here.