When a site selector calls your county economic development office with questions about local workforce size, they expect a data-backed answer. When a state legislator asks how county payroll has grown over the last five years, “we’re doing well” won’t satisfy them. County leaders who have reliable county economic data ready for these conversations lead them. Those who don’t spend weeks scrambling to catch up.
The Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns (CBP) program is a detailed source of free, annual, county-level economic data available to public officials. It covers establishments with paid employees across most industries in the United States, organized by industry.
This guide covers what CBP data measures, where to find it, how to run a basic analysis, and how to turn raw statistics into reports that work for residents and stakeholders.
What the Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns Program Covers
County Business Patterns is an annual data series the Census Bureau has published as a continuous series since 1964. It draws on the Census Bureau’s Business Register, which combines federal administrative records with Census survey data to track employer establishments, organized by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.
The program covers all U.S. counties. A county official can see not just total employment but how many people work in healthcare, how many in professional services, and how many in hospitality — each as a separate industry row in the same table where the detail is published.
CBP primarily covers private-sector employers. Most government employment and crop and animal production fall outside the program’s scope, along with self-employed workers and certain other industries. It provides a useful starting point for economic analysis, with these exclusions kept in mind.
The 2023 CBP data is the most recent available as of 2026. The Census Bureau released it on June 26, 2025, reflecting the typical 18-month lag between the reference year and publication.
The Four Core Metrics in Every CBP Report
CBP reports four data points for each county and each industry classification subject to publication limits. Understanding what each one captures before running any analysis avoids misreading the numbers later.
Number of Establishments
An establishment is a single physical business location, not a company. A regional bank with four branches in your county counts as four establishments. This metric shows where commercial activity is concentrated and reveals industry density across the county.
Number of Paid Employees
CBP captures paid employment during the pay period March 12 of the reference year. This March snapshot serves as the primary headcount measure for covered employment. It is not a full-year average, so industries with seasonal employment patterns may look different at other points in the calendar year.
Annual Payroll
Annual payroll covers wages and other compensation paid to employees during the full calendar year before deductions. This figure measures payroll paid by covered establishments in the county, rather than total earnings received by county households.
First-Quarter Payroll
First-quarter payroll covers compensation paid from January through March. Analysts can compare this consistent calendar period across years, but it is released with the annual data and does not provide a current-quarter update.
How to Access County Business Patterns Data
The Census Bureau makes CBP data available through data.census.gov. The portal can feel overwhelming at first, but finding county-level data follows a direct path.
Search “County Business Patterns” from the data.census.gov home screen, select the CBP table for the desired reference year, filter by geography to narrow results to your county, then apply a NAICS code filter for sector-specific data.
For county staff who prefer bulk downloads, the CBP program page on census.gov offers complete county-level files as annual CSV downloads. These load directly into Excel or any data platform and eliminate the need to navigate the web interface table by table.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) complements CBP well. CBP reports annually and excludes most government employment. QCEW includes covered government employment, draws on unemployment insurance records, and reports quarterly. Using both can provide a broader picture of the local labor market.
A 5-Step Workflow for Analyzing County Economic Data
County staff new to CBP can follow this process to move from raw download to actionable insight.
- Pull totals for two points in time. Download your county’s establishment count, employment, and annual payroll for the most recent year and for five years prior. This establishes a trend baseline without requiring specialized software. Check that industry definitions and county boundaries are comparable across the selected years.
- Break data down by industry sector. Using two-digit NAICS codes, identify which sectors employ the most people within the county and which have grown or contracted. The sectors with the largest employment share typically have the greatest influence on local tax revenue and workforce needs. Their influence on county revenue depends on the local tax structure.
- Calculate average annual pay per employee by sector. Divide annual payroll by employment for each industry. This helps compare average pay across industries and against county or state benchmarks using the same measure.
- Build a peer comparison. Select two or three neighboring counties or counties with similar populations. CBP covers them all with the same data structure, so side-by-side comparisons take only minutes to assemble and show where your county leads and where it may be losing ground.
- Create an annual tracking file. A spreadsheet that logs the four core metrics every year becomes a management tool the county executive’s office can update with each new CBP release. Over time, this file serves as the statistical backbone for budget presentations and legislative testimony.
From the Spreadsheet to the Public Report
Gathering and analyzing CBP data is only half the work. The other half is communicating findings in a form that residents, elected officials, and media can actually use.
Effective county economic reports share a few features. They open with a headline number that frames the story; total private employment, payroll growth over five years, or the sector with the largest workforce. They place the county’s numbers in context by comparing them against a peer county or a state average. They clearly label the reference year so readers understand what period the data covers.
The Census Bureau releases a national summary with each new CBP data drop. County communications staff can use that summary’s structure as a template and fill in local figures, which is faster than designing a report from scratch.
Travis County, Texas, home to Austin and the state capital, shows how this works in practice. According to the 2023 County Business Patterns data, Travis County has 42,837 covered employment establishments, 736,608 paid employees, and an annual payroll of $63.6 billion. Dividing payroll by March employment produces approximately $86,300 in annual payroll per employee. This is not a median wage, and the county total alone does not establish which industries explain the result.
But the headline numbers tell only part of the story. When county officials run the same payroll-per-employee calculation by sector, comparing professional and technical services against accommodation and food service, the difference in payroll per employee between high-growth industries and hourly service work becomes concrete and citable rather than a general impression. That level of specificity is exactly what site selectors and economic development partners expect when they evaluate a county for investment.
Frequently Asked Questions About County Business Patterns Data
What is County Business Patterns data? County Business Patterns is an annual Census Bureau series that reports the number of covered employment establishments, paid employees, annual payroll, and first-quarter payroll for every U.S. county, organized by industry. The program covers private employers only and typically releases 18 months after the reference year. The program excludes most government employment and certain other industries, and its data are published with a substantial lag.
How current is CBP data? As of 2026, the most recent CBP data covers calendar year 2023, released in June 2025. County officials should cite the reference year when using these figures and account for economic changes that have occurred since the data was collected.
How does CBP data differ from BLS QCEW data? CBP reports annually and excludes most government employment; QCEW reports quarterly and includes covered government jobs. Available industry detail varies by source and geography. CBP offers deeper industry breakdowns at the county level but covers private employers only and reports annually. Both programs are worth using together for a broader picture.
Can small counties use CBP data effectively? Yes. CBP covers every U.S. county regardless of size. Some detailed figures are withheld or omitted to protect confidentiality or meet publication standards. Published broader industry totals and available establishment counts can still be useful, but missing data should not be treated as zero.
County Economic Data Belongs in Every Executive’s Toolkit
County Business Patterns gives county leaders something most management decisions lack: a consistent, comparable, annually updated record of how the local economy is performing. The data covers every county in the country. The access is free. The analysis requires no specialized software.
County executives who build CBP analysis into their standard operations gain a tool that supports stronger budget decisions, more competitive grant applications, and staff who can answer economic questions with precision. Start with the most recent release, run the five-step workflow, and put the numbers to work.