“Los Angeles County, Calif., led the nation in the number of Hispanic-, Asian-, and American Indian and Alaska Native-owned firms in 2012, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. It also ranked second in the number of black or African American- and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms (after Cook County, Ill., and Honolulu County, Hawaii, respectively). Collectively, Los Angeles County was home to 631,218 minority-owned firms: 332,967 Hispanic, 213,203 Asian, 81,563 black or African American, 11,081 American Indian and Alaska Native, and 3,798 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. Consequently, with 3.2 percent of the nation’s total population (according to the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2012, population estimates), the county was home to 7.9 percent of its minority-owned businesses in 2012. The majority of firms in Los Angeles County (55.0 percent) were minority-owned. This includes 29.0 percent Hispanic-owned, 18.6 percent Asian-owned, 7.1 percent black or African American-owned, 1.0 percent owned by American Indians and Alaska Natives, and 0.3 percent Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned. These findings for Los Angeles County are an example of the local analysis possible using the final, revised statistics from the 2012 Survey of Business Owners released today. Nationally, today’s findings show the number of minority-owned firms in the U.S. rose from 5.8 million in 2007 to 8.0 million in 2012. This includes a 46.3 percent increase in the number of Hispanic-owned firms over the period, from 2.3 million to 3.3 million, and a 34.5 percent rise in the number of black or African American-owned firms, from 1.9 million to 2.6 million. Additionally, the number of Asian-owned firms climbed from 1.5 million to 1.9 million, an increase of 23.8 percent. For added context, total U.S. firms increased 2.0 percent during the same period, from 27.1 million in 2007 to 27.6 million in 2012. The 9.9 million women-owned firms in 2012 were up more than 2 million from five years earlier when there were 7.8 million women-owned businesses, a 26.8 percent increase. As a comparison, male-owned firms increased 6.8 percent from 13.9 million to 14.8 million during the same period. The Survey of Business Owners is a sample survey that provides the only comprehensive, regularly collected source of information on selected economic and demographic characteristics for businesses and business owners by gender, ethnicity, race and veteran status. Today’s release provides data at detailed geographic (nation, state, metropolitan area, county and economic place) and industry levels (two-digit through six-digit industry coding level). In August, preliminary data were published for these groups at the national, state and two-digit sector levels.”