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 the most comprehensive source of free, annual, county-level economic data available to public officials. It covers every private-sector employer in the United States, organized by industry. Yet many county executives either don’t know it exists or haven’t developed a practical workflow for using it.
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 compiles administrative records from the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to track private-sector businesses at the county level, 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 technology, and how many in hospitality — each as a separate industry row in the same table.
CBP covers private-sector employers only. Government workers and agricultural operations fall outside the program’s scope. For most counties, private employment still represents the majority of the local workforce, making CBP the most practical starting point for economic analysis.
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. 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 week of March 12 of the reference year. This single-week snapshot serves as the primary headcount measure for private-sector work. 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 reflects the total earnings flowing into county households from private-sector employment and stands as one of the strongest indicators of local economic health available at the county level.
First-Quarter Payroll
First-quarter payroll covers compensation paid from January through March. Economic analysts use this figure alongside annual payroll to calculate implied average annual wages, which makes it possible to compare compensation levels across counties or across industries within a single county.
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. Where CBP covers only private employers and updates annually, QCEW includes government employment, draws on unemployment insurance records, and updates quarterly. Running both programs together gives county leaders the most complete picture of their 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.
- Break data down by industry sector. Using two-digit NAICS codes, identify which sectors employ the most residents 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.
- Calculate average wages per sector. Divide annual payroll by employment for each industry. This reveals where workers earn the most and flags sectors where local wages trail county or state averages — a useful input for workforce development planning.
- 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 private-sector establishments, 736,608 paid employees, and an annual payroll of $63.6 billion. Dividing payroll by employment puts the implied average annual wage at approximately $86,300 per worker, well above the national median and a direct reflection of Austin’s technology concentration.
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 wage gap 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 private-sector 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.
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? The Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages covers both private and government employment, draws on unemployment insurance records, and updates quarterly. 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 complete picture.
Can small counties use CBP data effectively? Yes. CBP covers every U.S. county regardless of size. In counties where a specific industry has very few employers, the Census Bureau may suppress exact figures to protect business confidentiality and replace them with employment size ranges. Even with suppression, the data provides useful directional information about which industries are present and active.
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.