U.S. Women-Owned Businesses Face Outdated Data

The U.S. economy has undergone significant changes over the past three years, yet some of the most detailed data on women-owned businesses still reflect conditions in 2023. This gap creates challenges for policymakers, financial institutions and organizations seeking to understand the needs and priorities of women entrepreneurs in 2026.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women owned 14.2 million businesses in 2023, generating approximately $2.8 trillion in receipts. While these figures highlight their contribution to the economy, they do not reflect current business performance. Rising borrowing costs, evolving trade policies, shifting consumer demand and increasing operating expenses have reshaped the business landscape, with varying effects across industries and business sizes.

The problem is not so much the age of the statistics as the issue of the statistics. As conditions in the economy evolve more rapidly than detailed business information on the population comes to hand, policies regarding credit and technical assistance for economic development can be based on a picture of entrepreneurship that is not fully representative of the market.

Key Highlights:

• Women owned 14.2 million U.S. businesses generating approximately $2.8 trillion in receipts in 2023
• A 2026 Federal Reserve survey found that 60% of women-owned employer firms expected revenue growth over the next year
• Women entrepreneurs reported lower profitability and weaker financial conditions than their male counterparts

Women's businesses are spread out by industry, each having different economic exposures. Think of a woman-owned store that gets its products from other countries and a professional services business where wages and equipment are the highest costs. Both are seen in the same general statistics of ownership, but fluctuations in tariffs, labor costs, interest rates and consumer demand can have different impacts on their businesses.

The indicators are significant when assessing the status of women entrepreneurs' economy. The rise in business ownership does not correspond with an improvement in profitability, financial stability, and/or business growth. Likewise, overall small business performance data can mask large variations among industry, business size and business owner profiles.

A more recent view comes from the Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 Firms in Focus research, which is derived from the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey. Sixty percent of the women-owned employer firms surveyed said they would expect to see revenue growth in the next year, with 42 percent saying this would happen in the past year. However, female entrepreneurs also found that their business was less profitable and worse financial conditions compared to male entrepreneurs.

The results imply that there is no correlation between growth and financial health. They also show how the importance of earlier information on business performance is illustrated. While the Federal Reserve survey is useful for providing insights, it does not include a complete picture of women-owned firms; rather, it surveys a nonrandom sample of those firms that participated.