docs/us_economy/economy_industry_establishments_county_year_naics

economy_industry_establishments_county_year_naics

Census CBP establishments by county, year, and NAICS — long format (F2). Tier A-.

tier —admin_recordeconomycbpestablishmentsnaicslong_formatfirms
grain
county-naics-year
years
2019 – 2023
cadence
Annual (released ~16-20 months after reference year)
overview

overview

5,371,582 rows - county x NAICS-6 x year over 5 years. CBP near-census of paid-employee establishments.

current vintage — 2023 (released spring 2025)

history — CBP: 1986 to present; NAICS-based 1998 forward

provenance

source & licensing

authority
U.S. Census Bureau
dataset
County Business Patterns (CBP)
license
citation
U.S. Census Bureau. County Business Patterns (CBP), county x NAICS, 2019-2023.
schema

fields

nametypedefinition
annual_payroll_1000int64 · thousands of dollarsTotal annual payroll paid to all employees during the calendar year, in thousands of nominal dollars. Higher values reflect greater total labor compensation in the industry-county cell.
country_idstringISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).
county_idkeystring5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Joins dim.counties on county_id.
emp_nfstringNoise flag for the employees field, as published by the Census Bureau County Business Patterns program. Common values include 'G' (noise infusion applied) and 'H' (withheld); blank indicates no noise applied.
employeesint64 · workersTotal number of paid employees for the pay period including March 12. May be suppressed or noise-infused for disclosure avoidance; see is_suppressed and emp_nf.
establishmentsint64 · establishmentsTotal number of business establishments operating in this county, year, and NAICS industry. An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted. Higher values indicate greater industry presence.
is_suppressedboolIndicates whether employee and payroll data have been withheld for this record to protect individual business confidentiality. When true, employees and annual_payroll_1000 should not be used.
n10_19int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 10 to 19 paid employees.
n100_249int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 100 to 249 paid employees.
n1000int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 1,000 or more paid employees.
n20_49int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 20 to 49 paid employees.
n250_499int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 250 to 499 paid employees.
n5_9int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 5 to 9 paid employees.
n50_99int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 50 to 99 paid employees.
n500_999int64 · establishmentsNumber of establishments in this industry-county cell with 500 to 999 paid employees.
naics_codekeystringNorth American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code identifying the industry sector. Values range from 2-digit (sector) to 6-digit (industry) granularity.Joins dim.naics_codes on naics_code.
state_idstring2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id.
yearkeyint64Reference year of the observation.
relationships

joins

primary key
county_id, naics_code, year
common joins
dim.geographies on county_id
economy_establishments_county_year on (county_id, year)
economy_industry_employment_county_year_naics on (county_id, naics_code, year)
usage

how to use this table

method

CBP Business Register extract aggregated by county x NAICS-6 x employment-size-class. Pipeline retains all NAICS levels (2-6 digit); use the digit count to filter granularity.

do not use for

Government establishments; non-employer firms (nonemployer statistics is separate); high-precision NAICS-6 cells in small counties (heavy suppression).

known issues

Heavy suppression at NAICS-6 in small counties. Establishment counts != firm counts.

last updated · May 5, 2026