Census Bureau’s First Release of Franchise Data

It's taken a long time but finally an agency of the Federal Government will provide statistics on the franchise industry.

The 2007 Economic Census Franchise Report is the first comprehensive and detailed report by the Census Bureau on this segment of the U.S. economy. The concept of collecting these data was the result of a partnership between the Census Bureau and the International Franchise Association that focused on better measuring the role of franchising in the economy. Previous economic censuses included a question on franchising for only two industries, limited-service and full-service restaurants.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports franchise businesses accounted for 10.5 percent of businesses with paid employees in the 295 industries for which franchising data were collected in 2007.  Additionally, franchise businesses accounted for nearly $1.3 trillion of the $7.7 trillion in total sales for these industries, $153.7 billion out of the $1.6 trillion in total payroll, and 7.9 million workers out of a total workforce of 59.0 million.

Some additional data from Hospitality Industry News:

Among franchise businesses, 77.4 percent of the establishments were franchisee-owned, accounting for $1.1 trillion in sales, $125.1 billion in annual payroll and employing nearly 6.3 million workers. Franchisor-owned businesses made up 22.6 percent of franchise businesses, with $210.4 billion in sales, $28.6 billion in annual payroll and 1.6 million workers.

          About the author: Ed Teixeira, publisher of Franchise Know How, is a 35 year veteran of the franchise industry, operating franchise companies in convenience store, manufacturing , home health care and medical staffing sectors. He was also a home healthcare franchisee.