County Business Patterns

County Business Patterns (CBP)
ZIP Code Business Patterns (ZBP)

County Business Patterns (CBP) is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. This series includes the number of establishments, employment during the week of March 12, first quarter payroll, and annual payroll. This data is useful for studying the economic activity of small areas; analyzing economic changes over time; and as a benchmark for other statistical series, surveys, and databases between economic censuses. Businesses use the data for analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. Government agencies use the data for administration and planning.

ZIP Code Business Patterns data are available shortly after the release of County Business Patterns. It provides the number of establishments by employment-size classes by detailed industry in the U.S.

These two programs cover most of the country's economic activity based on establishments, with a few noted exclusions. For more information on the coverage and methodology of CBP, see How the Data are Collected. For information on businesses without paid employees, see Nonemployer Statistics.

Data for 2010 were released in June 2012. For help accessing the data via hypertext tables or American FactFinder, please refer to the Data User Guide [PDF].

For frequently asked questions (FAQs), visit Ask.Census.Gov or click the FAQs tab at the top of the screen. Enter 'CBP' or 'County Business Patterns' into the search box to narrow the results.

¹ Employers without a fixed location within a state (or of unknown county location) are included under a "Statewide" classification at the end of the county tables. This incomplete detail causes only a slight understatement of county employment. For more information about geography classification, please refer to How the Data are Collected.

² Legal Form of Organization (LFO) breakout became available for the U.S. starting with 2008 and for States starting in 2010.

³ Most ZIP Codes are derived from the physical location address reported in Census Bureau programs. The Internal Revenue Service provides supplemental address information. Those employers without a fixed location or with an unknown ZIP Code are included under an "Unclassified" category indicated by ZIP Code 99999. Zip codes are updated at the discretion of the U.S. Postal Service.

⁴Metropolitan statistical areas have an urban core with 50,000 or more inhabitants. Micropolitan statistical areas have an urban core with 10,000 to 49,999 inhabitants. See definitions or maps for metropolitan and micropolitan areas as of November 2007. These definitions and maps are updated every five years to correspond with the schedule of the Economic Census. The next update will occur with the 2012 data release.