In conjunction with our release of the report Black Business Opportunity Strategy: The Journey of Black Business Owners in Memphis, we are also releasing a set of interactive visualizations that allow users to view the characteristics of Black- and white-owned businesses in the Memphis metropolitan area, other metropolitan areas with available data, and the United States overall. The visualizations are complementary to the policy recommendation report and allow the user to compare Memphis to other regions, drawing their own conclusions on the state of Black entrepreneurship in Memphis.  

There are two bar charts and one line chart included in the set of interactive tools. The Memphis Black Business Owner Interactive Data Tool line chart plots data over time for the selected “Geography”, “Topic” of interest, and “Race.” Thus, the line chart allows the user to compare Black business owners in a selected geography to a benchmark of white business owners for a variety of metrics. Bar charts 1 and 2 of The Memphis Black Business Owner Interactive Data Tool provide business ownership data for each of Black females, white females, Black males, and white males in the selected geography. Bar chart 1 provides data for owners of employer firms, which are businesses with employees other than the owner; Bar chart 2 provides data for owners of nonemployer firms, which is business with no employees beyond the owner. These bar charts visualize the intersection of race and sex dynamics in business ownership.

To Use the Data Tools:

1. Select a Geography: The Memphis metropolitan area and the overall United States are located at the top of the drop-down list, while the following metropolitan areas are listed from the metro with the largest Black share of the adult population to the metro with the smallest share. There’s also a search bar that allows the user to search for a specific geography.
   • For the line chart, choose one or more metro areas using the top drop-down menu to display data for the selected geographies.
   • For the bar charts, select a single geography from the drop-down menu.

2. Select a Topic: Select a topic from the Topic menu to display data for that topic in any charts.
3. Select a Race (Line Chart Only): Select a race from the Race drop-down menu to display data for that race. Note that, in addition to “Black” and “White,” the user can select “Total” to display data for all businesses that are privately owned (not publicly traded).

The Memphis Black Business Owner Interactive Data Tool (Line Chart):

The “Adult Population” and “Adult Population Share” topics capture the count and share of the adult population corresponding to a given demographic group in a selected geography. We’ve chosen adult population data instead of the overall population because it captures the group of individuals who can currently become business owners. The Black share of a region’s overall adult population can be used as a benchmark for metrics such as the Black share of the region’s employer firms; if the Black share of the adult population is much higher than the Black share of the region’s employer firms, this may be a sign of an unequal entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The “Employer Firms” and “Employer Firm Share” topics capture the count and share of employer firms owned by individuals from a given demographic group in a selected geography. Unfortunately, the user will see that the share of employer firms owned by a region’s Black community is generally much smaller than the region’s Black share of the adult population. The Black share of a region’s overall adult population can be used as a benchmark for metrics such as the Black share of the region’s employer firms; if the Black share of the adult population is much higher than the Black share of the region’s employer firms, this may be a sign of an unequal entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The relationship between the Black adult population and Black-owned employer firms is formally captured by the topic “Employer Firm Share Relative to Adult Population Share.” This measure is the ratio of a race’s employer firm share to its adult population share. Thus, a value below 1 for a displayed race in a selected region directly indicates that the demographic group’s share of employer firms is smaller than its share of the adult population.  As data show for the Memphis metro, the ratio is only 0.16 for Black businesses owners. This apparent inequity could reflect limited capital access, education, or other resources necessary to start and grow a business.

“Jobs at Employer Firms” and “Job Share at Employer Firms” capture the number and share of employees at firms owned by individuals of a given race in a selected geography. These metrics convey the ability of firms owned by individuals of a particular race to grow their business. For Black owners, it is often the case that the job share is smaller than the firm share, indicating that Black-owned firms tend to have fewer employees than other firms. The relationship between the adult population and jobs at employer firms is captured by “Job Share at Employer Firms Relative to Adult Population Share.” This measure is the ratio of job share for a given race to its adult population share. Thus, a value below 1 for a given race in a selected region indicates that the job share for employer firms owned by individuals of that race is smaller than the race’s share of the adult population. In the Memphis metro, the Black ratio is 0.09 in 2020, significantly less than 1, whereas the white ratio is 1.89.

“Total Wages at Employer Firms” and “Wage Share at Employer Firms” capture the total value and share of wages paid by employer firms owned by a given race in a selected geography. Similar to the job metrics, these measures reflect the aggregate size of firms owned by individuals of the race. However, the information on total wages also captures the economic value of each job, as we would expect more valuable activities to result in higher wages. Additionally, this is a reflection of firms’ economic value because firms that pay higher total wages will generate more economic benefits in terms of increased productivity and innovation, which can benefit the economy over time.

The relationship between the adult population and wages paid by employer firms is captured by “Wage Share at Employer Firms Relative to Adult Population Share.” This measure is the ratio of wage share for a given race to its adult population share. Thus, a value below 1 for a given race in a selected geography indicates that the race’s wage share is smaller than the race’s share of the adult population. In the Memphis metro, the Black ratio is 0.07 in 2020, even smaller than its job share relative to its adult population share (0.09).

In addition to the three wage measurements already discussed, we also provide the “Average Wage at Employer Firms” to compare individual wages more directly across race of business owner and geography.

While the past several measures have focused on employer firms, we also provide statistics on nonemployer firms. “Nonemployer Firms” and “Nonemployer Firm Share” provide the number and share of nonemployer firms owned by a given race and a selected geography. These measures can be compared to the analogous employer firm metrics to understand the rate at which firms owned by individuals of a given race become employers. A lower proportion of firms owned by a given race that are employer firms reflects more business owners getting stuck in the growth pipeline.

“Sales Receipts at Nonemployer Firms” refers to revenue generated from such firms that is subject to federal income tax. It indicates the overall economic success of nonemployer firms owned by individuals of a given race in a selected region.

The Black Business Owner Interactive Data Tool (Bar Chart 1)

This bar chart includes 2020 data for all population and employer firm topics described above, but broken down by both race and sex, rather than race alone. Therefore, users can visualize the intersection of race and sex dynamics in business ownership.

Note: all shares are relative to the total for the given sex. Thus, the Black female share of employer firms captures the share of all female-owned employer firms that are owned by Black females.

The Memphis Black Business Owner Interactive Data Tool (Bar Chart 2)

Bar chart 2 follows the same visual design as bar chart 1, with the distinction that it includes 2018 data for all nonemployer firm topics described in the line chart. Therefore, users can visualize the intersection of race and sex dynamics in nonemployer business ownership.

Note: all shares are relative to the total for the given sex. Thus, the Black female share of nonemployer firms captures the share of all female-owned nonemployer firms that are owned by Black females.

Our goal for the interactive tools is to understand how these variables might suggest a racial, gender and economic inequity of Black-owned businesses compared to white-owned businesses, in terms of their own economic contributions to each metropolitan area. As both Black and white populations experienced relative growth over time, these data could indicate a level of economic disparity for Black-owned businesses, especially when comparing them with firm, wage, and job data.

Data Sources and Notes:

• The data has been sourced from the U.S Census Bureau, Survey of Business Owners, Annual Business Survey, and Annual Community Survey.
• Some variables might have missing values for certain metro areas due to data points being suppressed or unreported.
• All metropolitan statistical areas have been updated for consistency, aligned with the latest definitions from the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Bulletin No. 20-01, as released in March 2020.