The U.S. Census Bureau has published the latest Business Formation Statistics (BFS) for August 2025. These statistics offer regular updates on new business applications and formations across the United States. The BFS is a recurring data product from the Census Bureau, developed in partnership with economists from several institutions, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the University of Maryland, and the University of Notre Dame.
Each month, the complete BFS dataset is released and includes 12 series—four related to applications and eight to formations. Data are available at national, regional, and state levels and include both seasonally adjusted and nonseasonally adjusted figures.
In addition to national data, the Census Bureau has also released Monthly Puerto Rico Business Applications. This experimental dataset provides four monthly business application series for Puerto Rico using the same methodology as that applied to existing BFS data.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau: “The BFS provide timely and high frequency information on new business applications and formations in the United States.”
There was no accompanying news release; this update was distributed as a tip sheet only.
