The U.S. Census Bureau has released its latest Business Formation Statistics (BFS) for July 2025, providing updated information on new business applications and formations across the United States. The BFS are issued monthly and offer both seasonally and nonseasonally adjusted data at national, regional, and state levels.
Developed in collaboration with economists from 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, these statistics are intended to provide high-frequency insight into trends in business creation.
In addition to the standard dataset—which includes twelve different series covering both application and formation metrics—the Census Bureau has also released Monthly Puerto Rico Business Applications. This experimental product tracks four monthly business application series specific to Puerto Rico using methodologies consistent with those used for other BFS data.
According to the Census Bureau: “The BFS provide timely and high frequency information on new business applications and formations in the United States.”
“The full BFS dataset with all 12 series (four application and eight formation) is released monthly with statistics for the nation, region and states. This data product includes seasonally and nonseasonally adjusted data.”
“The U.S. Census Bureau today also released Monthly Puerto Rico Business Applications. This experimental data product features four monthly business applications series for Puerto Rico and uses the same methodology for business applications as the existing monthly Business Formation Statistics (BFS).”
No formal news release accompanied this announcement; it was distributed as a tip sheet only.
