economy_establishments_county_year
Census CBP county-total establishments and size-class distribution (F1). Tier A-.
overview
3,135 counties x 5 years = 15,677 rows. CBP near-census of US establishments with paid employees.
current vintage — 2023 (released spring 2025)
history — CBP: 1986 to present (NAICS-based from 1998)
source & licensing
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| annual_payroll_1000 | int64 · thousands of dollars | Total annual payroll paid to all employees during the calendar year, in nominal thousands of dollars. Higher values indicate greater aggregate labor compensation in the county. |
| country_id | string | ISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables). |
| county_idkey | string | 5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Joins dim.counties on county_id. |
| emp_nf | string | Noise flag for the employees count, using Census Bureau CBP suppression codes (e.g. 'A'–'H' for noise ranges, 'S' for suppressed). A non-empty value means the reported employee figure has been withheld or statistically masked to protect confidentiality. |
| employees | int64 · workers | Number of paid employees for the pay period including March 12 of the reference year. May be suppressed or noise-infused; see emp_nf for the applicable flag. |
| n10_19 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 10 to 19 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n100_249 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 100 to 249 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n1000 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 1,000 or more workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n20_49 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 20 to 49 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n250_499 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 250 to 499 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n5_9 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 5 to 9 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n50_99 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 50 to 99 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| n500_999 | int64 · establishments | Number of establishments employing 500 to 999 workers during the March 12 reference period. |
| state_id | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| total_establishments | int64 · establishments | Total number of business establishments operating in the county during the reference year, as reported in Census Bureau County Business Patterns. Higher values indicate a larger local business base. |
| yearkey | int64 | Reference year of the observation. |
joins
how to use this table
CBP draws from Business Register; counts establishments by employment size class (1-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-49, 50-99, 100-249, 250-499, 500-999, 1000+). 'Establishment' = single physical location.
Self-employed/non-employer firms (excluded); government employment (excluded); month-to-month or current-quarter activity (annual snapshot ~1.5-year lag).
Small-county suppression: cells with <3 establishments or risk of disclosure are flagged. Establishments != firms (single firm can have many establishments).