Industries With the Most Nonemployer Businesses

Transportation and Warehousing grew the fastest of all 18 sectors from 2023, up 10.5% (our calculation), to take first place.¹² Most of it is two industries: Taxi and Limousine Service, with 1,602,297 businesses (+16.4%), and Couriers and Messengers, with 1,595,662 (+10.9%). General Freight Trucking adds 830,632.¹² 95.0% of the sector’s nonemployers are sole proprietorships (our calculation).¹

Census singles out taxi and limousine service and couriers as industries where individual proprietors are likely to have some of their receipts from gig activities, though the gig share is unknown because the tax data don’t record it.⁹ Average receipts were $43,781 per business (our calculation).¹

The home of consultants, designers and other solo professionals: 4,233,838 businesses with $249.5 billion in receipts, up 3.9% on 2023 (our calculation).¹² The largest industries are Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (1,226,138) and Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (1,187,781, +9.8%). Accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services count 405,112; Computer Systems Design and Related Services counts 334,886, which shrank (−2.5%).¹²

Other Services covers personal and repair work: Personal Care Services alone counts 1,539,712 nonemployers, Other Personal Services 947,955 and Automotive Repair and Maintenance 401,679 (+7.6% on 2023).¹² 92.7% are sole proprietorships, and average receipts were $38,654 (our calculations).¹ Census leaves private households out of this sector.⁶

Real estate has the most receipts of any sector, $363.4 billion, and the highest average among the top ten, $111,337 per business (our calculation).¹ Its biggest industry is Lessors of Real Estate, with 1,380,438 businesses; Activities Related to Real Estate count 926,468 and Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers 819,954 (−0.5% on 2023).¹²

It is also the sector least made up of sole proprietorships: 40.7% (our calculation), with the rest partnerships and corporations.¹

Services to Buildings and Dwellings, which includes janitorial and landscaping work, accounts for 1,911,817 of the sector’s 3,082,024 businesses (+6.0% on 2023); Office Administrative Services add 388,296.¹²³ Average receipts were $29,421, the second-lowest of any sector after Educational Services (our calculation).¹

Construction is the one sector where Census counts a business with as little as $1 in receipts, not $1,000.⁴ It had 3,042,704 nonemployers in 2024, 1,986,549 of them specialty trade contractors, and Residential Building Construction grew to 897,780 (+6.9%).¹² Receipts were $258.2 billion, an average of $84,859 (our calculation).¹

Offices of Other Health Practitioners lead with 665,002 (+6.8% on 2023), followed by Child Care Services with 537,849 and Home Health Care Services with 441,716 (+7.2%).¹² Census reclassifies any hospital that shows up as a nonemployer into other ambulatory health care, on the assumption that hospitals need paid staff.⁴

Retail’s nonemployers rose 4.6% to 2,178,016 (our calculation).¹² Other Miscellaneous Retailers is the largest industry with 322,238; Used Merchandise Retailers grew 23.5% to 172,806, while Health and Personal Care Retailers fell 2.7% to 291,408.¹² Census reclassifies new car dealers that appear as nonemployers as used car dealers.⁴

This is where many creators land: Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers count 1,115,783 nonemployers (+2.6% on 2023), most of the sector’s 1,806,368. Spectator Sports adds 269,053.¹² Census lists independent artists, writers and performers among the industries where individual proprietors likely earn some gig receipts.⁹ Average receipts were $35,313 (our calculation).¹

Educational Services had 924,679 nonemployers, up 3.5% (our calculation), with the lowest average receipts of any sector, $18,746, and the highest share of sole proprietorships, 97.2% (our calculations).¹²