10 Very Important Small Business Stats you Should Check Out

Small businesses can be hard to run but oh so rewarding at the same time. But what defines a small business and what do you need to know about one? Check out these 16 incredible stats that show how vital small businesses are to the economy and to the community.

A small business consists of less than 500 employees, according to the SBA.

In the US, there are 28 million small businesses in operation. Of these, 22 million are non employers, or they are self employed without any employees.

120 million people work in the small business sector.

That’s half of the working population of the United States.

Since 1995, 65% of new jobs created have come from the small business sector.

Every month, 543,000 new small businesses set up. Every month, however, more employer businesses shut down than startup.

70% of new small businesses survive their first 2 years. This drops to 50% in their first 5 years, drops again to 33% surviving the first 10 years, and finally drops to 25% of small businesses surviving 15 years or more.

In 2011, nonemployers’ total revenues hit $989.6 billion. This increased 4.1% from 2010.

Just over half of all small businesses are home-based.

Auto Repair, Beauty, and Dry Cleaning were the 3 fastest growing freelance businesses in the US in 2011.

Nonemployer businesses make up approximately 75% of all US businesses.

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