About the BDS

The new Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) are a product of the Center for Economic Studies of the U.S. Census Bureau. The annual series describes establishment-level business dynamics along dimensions absent from similar databases including firm age and firm size.

BDS are created from the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD), a confidential database available to researchers throughout the network of Census Research Data Centers. BDS development at CES was partially funded by the Kauffman Foundation. A unique feature of the BDS is its longitudinal source data that permit tracking establishments and firms over time. The public use BDS tabulations are an effort to make information from the confidential LBD accessible to a broad range of data users. Other efforts currently under way include creating a fully synthetic microdata file based on the LBD.

The BDS series provides annual statistics for 1976-2005. To view BDS tabulations by year select the appropriate series from the BDS Database list.

For more information, contact CES via email.