While the number of Black-owned businesses in the U.S. has grown in the past few years, Black business owners represented only 2.4% of all employer-firm owners, while Black Americans make up about 12.4% of the country's population. This disproportionate representation of business owners goes the opposite way for white Americans, who made up a majority (86%) of employee-firm owners, while representing about 59% of all people living in the U.S.
An estimated 161,031 Black or African American-owned businesses were in operation in 2022, with $183.3 billion in annual receipts. The number of Black-owned businesses is up from 2020, when an estimated 140,918 were in operation.
Although a majority of Black-owned businesses have small payrolls (about 66% of businesses had fewer than 10 employees in 2020, says Pew Research Center), several Black-owned firms generate billion-dollar revenues each year and employ thousands of workers.
The following companies are some of the largest Black-owned businesses in the U.S.:
At the top of the list is David Steward's successful company, World Wide Technology. The corporation employs about 10,000 people across the globe and brought in $17 billion in revenue last year, according to Forbes. The technology service provider has continuously ranked No. 1 for largest Black-owned business in the U.S. and is currently ranked 23 on Forbes' largest private American companies list.
These Black-owned businesses employee the most people
World Wide Technology employees 10,000 people
Thompson Hospitality Corp. employees 6,000 people
Coca-Cola Beverages Florida employees 5,000 people
These Black-owned businesses bring in the largest yearly revenues
World Wide Technology had a revenue of $17 billion in 2023
Bridge Water Interiors generates an annual revenue of $2 billion
ActOne generated a revenue of $1.1 billion in 2022
Not only does the underrepresentation of Black businesses hurt Black communities and further racial inequality, it is also costing the U.S. economy millions of jobs and billions of dollars in unrealized revenues, according to the report.
Florida has the largest total number of Black-owned businesses (461,149) and employer firms (18,502). World Wide Technology is the largest Black-owned business with $17 billion in annual revenue. Black or African American women own an estimated 58,974 businesses with at least one employee, employing 481,930 employees.
The Annual Business Survey (ABS) recorded 161,031 Black-owned businesses in the US as of 2021. These businesses employed over 1.4 million people and generated about $206.1 billion in revenue (adjusting for inflation to 2023 dollars). The ABS identified 5.9 million businesses whose ownership could be classified by race.
Walmart is the largest private U.S. employer of Black and African Americans, with 20% of our U.S. workforce identifying as Black and African American and more than 50% identifying as People of Color.
Advocacy has released an updated infographic showcasing Black-owned businesses. Black business owners own 3.5 million businesses and employ more than 1.2 million people.
Its roots run deep in American history. - I brag about it all the time, and it's funny because we were just on Jeopardy year before last. - [Alex Trebek] EE Ward Moving and Storage is the oldest black-owned company in the United States dating to the 1840s when a Ward was a conductor on this.
As of 2022, Atlanta had 10,689 Black-owned businesses representing various industries, including food, hair, healthcare, and entertainment. Despite having the most Black-owned businesses in the U.S., there is a drastic disparity in resources available for Black entrepreneurs, according to LendingTree's study.
The greatest number and share of majority Black- or African American-owned businesses are in the health care and social assistance sector. In 2020, more than 38,000 of the nearly 141,000 U.S. companies with majority Black or African American ownership, or 28% of the total, were in this sector.
White Americans own 85.6% of U.S. businesses with employees.
Just 2.5% of these businesses are owned by Black Americans, even though they account for 12.6% of the U.S. population. White Americans account for 70.4% of the U.S. population.
In 2021, the number of Black-owned employer businesses increased by 14.3% (roughly 20,000 businesses) to a total of 161,031 employer businesses—the largest annual increase since the release of the first Annual Business Survey in 2017.
NAACP. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the largest Black-run nonprofit organization in the country with well over 2 million activists .
The companies employ 293,723 and 288,300 individuals, respectively. Overall, the federal government is the largest employer in the US. As of September 2023, approximately 2.95 million individuals were part of the US Federal workforce.
Looking at the BLS data for 2023, we see the highest employment of African Americans is in the professional and related, service, and management, business, and financial operations occupational categories.
Lily Adeleye is once again making history at the age of 6. As the founder of Lily Frilly, a popular girl's fashion brand, she is now the youngest entrepreneur to have a Black-owned brand being sold in Walmart stores.
WWT, founded in 1990, is the largest Black-owned business in the country, per USA Today. With an annual revenue of $20 billion, according to the company, WWT employs more than 10,000 employees across 55 global locations.
Introduction: My name is Aron Pacocha, I am a happy, tasty, innocent, proud, talented, courageous, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
