Black-owned businesses are a crucial part of reducing racial inequality in the United States. A survey from the Pew Research Center shows that six-in-ten Black adults view supporting Black businesses as an effective strategy for achieving equality. However, the representation of Black business owners in the country is disproportionate, with only 2.4% of all employer-firm owners being Black, despite the fact that Black Americans make up about 12.4% of the population. The number of Black-owned businesses has increased, with an estimated 161,031 in operation in 2022, up from 140,918 in 2020, generating $183.3 billion in annual receipts and employing 1.4 million people.
Despite economic growth, many Black-owned businesses have small payrolls, with about 66% of businesses having fewer than 10 employees. However, some Black-owned firms generate billion-dollar revenues each year and employ thousands of workers. For example, World Wide Technology, a successful company owned by David Steward, employs about 10,000 people across the globe and brought in $17 billion in revenue last year, making it the largest Black-owned business in the U.S. Additionally, the report found that Black businesses are much more likely to hire Black workers and that the underrepresentation of Black businesses not only hurts Black communities and further racial inequality, but it is also costing the U.S. economy millions of jobs and billions of dollars in unrealized revenues.
