First Data from US Economic Census
March 31 2004
The first tabulations from the latest US economic census show six industry sectors with sales or receipts above $1 trillion. The Census Bureau's statistics are based on data collected last year from more than 7 million business locations in over 1,000 industries.
The report, which uses preliminary data subject to subsequent updates, lists the six in descending order as:
- Wholesale trade ($4.4 trillion)
- Manufacturing ($3.8 trillion)
- Retail trade ($3.2 trillion)
- Finance and insurance ($2.6 trillion)
- Health care and social assistance ($1.2 trillion)
- Construction ($1.1 trillion)
Two sectors cam in just under one billion - the professional, scientific and technical services sector and the information sector, each with $0.9 trillion in sales / receipts.
More than 1,600 reports from the 2002 Economic Census will be issued over the next two years, with data on the number of business locations, shipments, sales or receipts, payroll and number of employees.
The current tables cover 7 million US businesses with paid employees - the 17 million businesses without paid employees will be covered separately in a report in the spring. Later reports will break results down by industry sector, state and local area. Included for the first time are e-business categories such as electronic shopping, electronic auctions, wholesale electronic markets, Internet publishing and broadcasting, and Web search portals.
The economic census dates back to 1810, when the census of population included questions on manufacturing. It has been conducted at five-year intervals since the 1950s. The 2002 version uses the new 2002 North American Industry Classification System. A new North American Product Classification System will also provide the first information on services sold by selected service industries.
More details of the report,
Advance Summary Statistics for the United States: 2002, can be found online at
www.census.gov/econ/census02
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
