WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- The number of minority and women-owned businesses grew faster than the overall increase between 2002 and 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The data included in the Preliminary Estimate of Business Ownership by Gender, Ethnicity, Race and Veteran Status, 2007, shows the number of minority-owned businesses rose 45.6 percent during the five-year study period, while the number of women-owned businesses rose by 20.1 percent.
Overall, the number of U.S. businesses increased 18 percent to 27.1 million, the Census Bureau said.
The receipts of minority-owned businesses grew 55.6 percent to $1 trillion in the study period.
Among all businesses, receipts grew by 33.5 percent to $30.2 trillion.
The bureau said 5.8 million of the nation's 27.1 million businesses in 2007 had paid employees, who hired a combined 118.7 million people, an increase of 7.1 percent from 2002.
Payrolls in 2007, at $4.9 trillion, were 28.2 percent higher than 2002. Among 5.8 million minority-owned businesses in 2007, 5 million had no paid employees.
The minority-owned businesses with paid employees paid $168.2 billion to 5.9 million workers in 2007.
