Quarterly Reports›Q3 2026
The State of
Black Business.
Q3 2026.
Our third-quarter read on the state of Black-owned business pairs the latest U.S. Census Annual Business Survey with BLK Society's own verified directory: what's open, where it's concentrated, and what the categories tell us about where Black enterprise is building right now.
Compiled August 16, 2026 · Census data as of August 2026
The Macro · U.S. Census ABS
Black-owned firms, nationally.
200,885
Black-owned employer firms
$249.0B
Annual receipts
$69.8B
Annual payroll
1,864,727
Employees
3.4%
Share of all U.S. employer firms
First-Party · BLK Society Directory
Where the verified directory runs deepest.
By Category
Verified Black-owned brands
By City
Verified businesses (stores + brands)
Openings & Closures
The ledger this quarter.
626
Total verified listings
138
Brands
488
Stores & businesses
0
Closures honored
Every listing is verified Black-owned by hand: no self-reported labels, no pay-to-play. Closures are drawn from our append-only closures record, the one dataset here nobody else keeps. See the record →
Methodology
How to read this.
Macro numbers
National firm counts, receipts, payroll, and employment come from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Business Survey (employer firms), retrieved August 2026. These are official, nationally representative estimates.
First-party numbers
Category, city, and closure figures reflect the BLK Society verified directory as of the compiled date. This is a curated, hand-verified sample, not a census: it shows concentration and momentum, not national totals.
Cite this report
BLK Society, "The State of Black Business — Q3 2026." blksociety.com/state-of-black-business/reports/2026-q3 (compiled August 16, 2026).