Applications
Business Applications are a selected subset of IRS Form SS-4 EIN applications. They indicate business-initiation activity, not operating firms or employer startups.
Census BFS / July 2026
Business Formation Observatory
Follow monthly Census business applications and employer-business formations across the nation, states, and industry groups. Applications, observed formations, and projections are different measures.
- Monthly panel
- 115
- January 2017 - July 2026
- Geographic field
- 51
- 50 states + District of Columbia
- Industry field
- 20
- published national buckets
- Series custody
- 7
- 57,960 auditable cells
- Business applications
- 578,926
- +8.1% from June / seasonally adjusted EIN applications
- Projected formations
- 29,959
- +0.7% from June / modeled employer formations within four quarters
- High propensity
- 151,857
- +1.4% from June / application subset, not observed firms
- Actual-formation edge
- December 2022
- later cohorts remain projected in the spliced path
Monthly formation desk
Business formation field
- Selected
- United States
- Series
- BA_BA
- Focus
- Jul 2026
- Value
- 578,926
- Observed
BA_BA / national / trajectory
Applications trajectory
Selected Employer Identification Number applications included in the Census BFS business-application universe.
Source interpretation
One cohort, several distinct measures
Application subsets
High-propensity, planned-wage, and corporate applications are overlapping nested constructions. They must not be added to Business Applications or to one another.
Formation outcome
Actual four-quarter formations use first payroll tax liability to identify employer businesses arising from an application cohort after the outcome window matures.
Projection and splice
Projected formations are econometric estimates. The spliced series uses actual formations through December 2022 and projected values at the current edge.
Evidence boundary