Black-owned businesses increased more than twice as fast as overall business growth over five years, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. But the money earned by black firms went up at only the same rate as business overall, reflecting that the minority-owned companies were relatively smaller than businesses overall. The bureau reported that black-owned businesses increased from 308,000 in 1982 to 424,000 in 1987, the most recent year for which detailed information is available. That was an increase of 38 percent, compared with a rise of just 14 percent in the total number of businesses in the country. During the same period, receipts of black-owned firms rose 105 percent to $19.8 billion. Total business income increased 106 percent to more than $1.9 trillion in the same period. According to the Census report, based on the 1987 Economic Census, 94 percent of black-owned businesses were sole proprietorships. Receipts per company averaged $47,000 for black-owned companies compared to $146,000 for all businesses. And 54 percent of black-owned firms had receipts of under $10,000. About half of all black-owned businesses were service companies, while 16 percent were in retail trade. By income, automobile dealers and service stations were the top black-owned business, followed by business services, health service, contractors and miscellaneous retail firms. New York, with 28,063 businesses, has the most black-owned firms, the report said. Los Angeles was second at 23,932, followed by Washington, 23,046; Chicago, 15,374 and Houston, 12,989.
