Estimates of the Number of Quasi and Small Businesses, 1948 to 1972

Abstract

When quasi businesses, businesses with no employees, are disaggregated from small businesses, businesses with one to ninety nine employees, for the period 1948 through 1972 the number of quasi businesses is estimated to have increased 161 percent. In the same time period the number of small businesses is estimated to have increased only 32 percent, with very little growth after 1959. These estimates indicate that small business, strictly defined, has had less growth in units over the 1948–72 time period than the commonly aggregated quasi and small business statistics would suggest.