Black-Owned Businesses Grew 62% in Six Years. Here's Where We Spend With Them on Our Trips

How many Black-owned businesses are there in the U.S.?

The latest Census count is about 200,900 Black-owned employer businesses in 2023. An employer business is one with at least one paid employee. When the Census Bureau released that data in November 2025, it rounded the figure to 201,000 and reported $249.0 billion in receipts for the year.

In this survey, a business is Black-owned when Black owners hold 51% or more of its stock or equity. The Census Bureau counts businesses with no paid employees too, the one-person shops and side businesses, but it does that through a separate program. That program found about 4.4 million Black-owned businesses without employees in 2023. The two numbers measure different things, so we don't add them together here. Plenty of other articles do, which is why some headlines put the count in the millions: they've folded every business with no employees in with the companies that run a payroll.

The years can trip you up as well, because the survey's name doesn't match the year it describes. The 2024 Annual Business Survey covers businesses in 2023, and the 2023 survey covers 2022. Every year in this article is the data year.

How fast are Black-owned businesses growing?

Much faster than U.S. businesses overall. Between 2017 and 2023 the number of Black-owned employer businesses grew by 62%, or nearly 77,000 firms, according to Andre M. Perry and Hannah Stephens of Brookings Metro. Employer businesses as a whole grew 3.3% over the same years.

The biggest jump came between 2021 and 2022, when the count grew by almost 21%, and growth slowed after that. From 2022 to 2023, Black employers added an estimated 6,300 firms, or 3.2%, which Brookings notes was a lower rate than in 2020.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Business Survey. 2017, Census Bureau release, May 19, 2020, also reported by Pew Research Center (February 12, 2025). 2018 and 2019, Adam Grundy and Lynda Lee, "Increase in Number of U.S. Black-Owned Businesses Between 2017 and 2019," Census Bureau, February 22, 2022. 2020, Census Bureau release, November 10, 2022. 2021, Census Bureau release, October 26, 2023. 2022, Census Bureau release, December 19, 2024. 2023, Census Bureau, "Measuring Black Enterprise" (2026), from the 2024 Annual Business Survey.

Perry and Stephens also looked at where the growth happened. Atlanta gained about 6,000 Black-owned employer businesses from 2017 to 2023, more than any other metro area, and then lost more than 600 of them between 2022 and 2023. In that last year Houston had the biggest gain, 902 firms.

What share of U.S. businesses are Black-owned?

About 3.4% of employer businesses. By the Brookings count, Black Americans made up 14.4% of the U.S. population in 2023 but owned 3.4% of employer businesses. The 62% growth is real, and it started from a small base.

Most of these firms are small, too. In 2022, 71% of Black-owned employer firms had between one and nine employees, Pew Research Center found, and Black-owned firms brought in about 1% of gross revenue from all classifiable U.S. companies.

We mention the gap because a number like 62% can make it sound as if the work is finished, and the share is still 3.4%. We're realistic about our own part in this. Our dinner reservations decide who gets paid on the nights we're in town, and we'd rather it be Black owners.

How does Black Wall Street Travel spend with Black-owned businesses?

We plan it into the itinerary instead of leaving it to chance. Every one of our group trips has a Black-owned restaurant on the itinerary, and on our Black Wall Street, Tulsa and Cape Town trips those meals are already part of what you book. Gina Woods, our founder, has been on other trips, including to Ghana, where "the intention being intentional wasn't there," as she put it on our September 2026 launch call.

Our Black Wall Street, Tulsa trip, April 28 to May 2, 2027, shows it most clearly. The welcome dinner is at one of Tulsa's Black-owned kitchens, and the farewell dinner is at one of the Black-owned restaurants keeping Greenwood's food alive. Both dinners are included. Day two can end with an optional evening at a Black-owned cigar lounge. Day four is a free day on Greenwood, with time for the Black-owned sweet shops along the avenue and an optional paint and sip at a Black-owned art studio.

When Gina introduced our Black Wall Street, Tulsa trip in September 2026, she talked about the Black community in Tulsa and what she wants our travelers to do there: "not only connecting with it, but supporting it."

In Ghana, we fly north to Tamale for a full day inside the shea butter trade, from nut to butter, with the cooperatives of women who run it. Travelers can buy straight from the cooperatives, and a Black-owned restaurant is on the itinerary too.

In Cape Town, the first dinner of the trip is a welcome feast at a Black-owned restaurant. Day five is our Black winemakers tour, with tastings and a long lunch at three Black-owned estates in the Winelands. The welcome dinner and the Winelands lunch are both included.

Our Brazil and Colombia trips are built around Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Colombian history. In Salvador that means the Africa heritage walk-and-ride tour through Black Salvador, plus an optional capoeira class. In Colombia it means a day in San Basilio de Palenque, with lunch there included, hearing the town's story from the descendants who carry it. Both trips also have a Black-owned restaurant on the itinerary. We don't call every other host on those trips Black-owned, because we only use that label where we know it's true.

Every group trip also includes a daily Business Activity for the business owners traveling with us. If you're planning a private trip, you can ask us to build the same priority into your days.

How can you find Black-owned businesses when you travel?

Do some of the looking before you land. Check whether the city has a Black chamber of commerce or Black business association, and if it does, whether its member list is public. Then read each business's own website to see what's still open.

It's worth confirming ownership instead of assuming it. A restaurant's own site or social pages will usually say who owns it, while a review listing can be years out of date. Businesses close and change hands.

Once you're there, ask around. Your guide or driver tends to know who else to see, and owners send business to each other, so the first Black-owned place you visit can often point you to the next one.

Don't pack every free afternoon with sights, either. That open time is when most of this spending happens.

Abroad, think about what the label means locally. In a majority-Black country, the more useful question is often whether your money reaches local owners and cooperatives or ends up mostly with international chains.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Andre M. Perry and Hannah Stephens, "Black employers are reaching new heights," Brookings, March 10, 2026.
2. U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Releases New Data About Characteristics of Employer and Nonemployer Business Owners," November 20, 2025 (2024 Annual Business Survey, reference year 2023).
3. U.S. Census Bureau, "Measuring Black Enterprise: Black-Owned Employer Firms, Employment, and Payroll Statistics" (2026), source line "2024 Annual Business Survey, data year 2023."
4. U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Releases New Data on Minority-Owned, Veteran-Owned and Women-Owned Businesses," December 19, 2024 (2023 Annual Business Survey, reference year 2022).
5. U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Releases New Data on Minority-Owned, Veteran-Owned and Women-Owned Businesses," October 26, 2023 (2022 Annual Business Survey, reference year 2021).
6. U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Releases New Data on Minority-Owned, Veteran-Owned and Women-Owned Businesses," November 10, 2022 (2021 Annual Business Survey, reference year 2020).
7. Adam Grundy and Lynda Lee, "Increase in Number of U.S. Black-Owned Businesses Between 2017 and 2019," U.S. Census Bureau, February 22, 2022.
8. U.S. Census Bureau, "Annual Business Survey Release Provides Data on Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses," May 19, 2020 (2018 Annual Business Survey, covering 2017).
9. Pew Research Center, "A look at Black-owned businesses in the U.S.," February 12, 2025.
10. Gina Woods, remarks on the Black Wall Street Travel launch call and Tulsa trip introduction, September 2026.
11. Black Wall Street Travel trip pages (itinerary and included lists): /destinations/tulsa, /destinations/ghana, /destinations/south-africa, /destinations/brazil, /destinations/colombia. Source file: BWST Website/src/data/trips.ts.