Franchise owner demographics: who owns US franchise businesses

Franchise owner demographics in 12 numbers

These cards come from the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey (ABS) for data year 2023 (collected in the 2024 ABS), the newest federal data that ask every sampled employer firm whether it operated as a franchise, and from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners microdata, the newest public file that links that answer to owner age, education and experience.

1. 4.7% of responding US employer firms operated all or partly as a franchise in 2023 (135,505 firms; standard error 0.1 points). Source: Census ABS, data year 2023.
2. 19.1% of franchise employer firms classifiable by owner were female-owned in 2023, below the 23.8% female-owned share of all responding employer firms. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023, our calculation.
3. 19.7% of franchise employer firms were owned equally by men and women in 2023, against 13.4% of all responding employer firms. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023, our calculation.
4. 27.3% of franchise employer firms were minority-owned in 2023, against 20.6% of all responding employer firms. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023, our calculation.
5. 7.9% of Asian-owned employer firms operated as a franchise in 2023, against 4.2% of White-owned firms. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023.
6. 18.1% of franchise employer firms were Asian-owned in 2023, against 10.6% of all responding employer firms. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023, our calculation.
7. 5.1% of Black or African American-owned employer firms operated as a franchise in 2023, above the White-owned rate of 4.2%. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023.
8. 4.0% of Hispanic-owned employer firms operated as a franchise in 2023, against 4.7% of non-Hispanic-owned firms. Source: Census ABS, data year 2023.
9. 4.6% of veteran-owned employer firms operated as a franchise in 2023, the same as nonveteran-owned firms (4.6%). Source: Census ABS, data year 2023.
10. 24.5% of veteran-owned accommodation and food services firms were franchised in 2023, against 18.9% of nonveteran-owned firms in that sector (a borderline difference). Source: Census ABS, data year 2023.
11. 50.0% of owners of franchise employer businesses in 2007 had bought the business, against 23.6% of owners of non-franchise businesses. Source: Census SBO 2007 microdata, our estimate.
12. 32.9% of franchise business owners in 2007 were aged 45 to 54, the largest age band and the one that holds the median owner. Source: Census SBO 2007 microdata, our estimate.

Which owner groups franchise most often (2023)

Franchising is a more common route for some owner groups than others, and most of the gaps are larger than their margins of error. In 2023, 7.9% of Asian-owned employer firms operated all or partly as a franchise, a propensity ratio of 1.68 against the 4.7% rate for all responding employer firms (90% interval 1.56 to 1.80), according to Census ABS table AB2300CSCB01. The White-owned rate was 4.2%, so the Asian minus White gap is 3.7 percentage points with a standard error of 0.32.

Firms owned equally by men and women franchised at 6.8% in 2023, against 4.5% for male-owned and 3.7% for female-owned firms. Minority-owned firms franchised at 6.2% against 4.2% for nonminority-owned firms. Black or African American-owned firms franchised at 5.1%, which is 0.9 points above the White-owned rate and clears the 90% test; their ratio to the all-firm rate (1.09, interval 0.97 to 1.20) cannot be told apart from 1.

Hispanic-owned firms franchised at 4.0% against 4.7% for non-Hispanic-owned firms in 2023, a gap of -0.7 points. Veteran-owned and nonveteran-owned firms both franchised at 4.6%. The American Indian and Alaska Native rate (3.8%, standard error 0.6) and the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander rate (4.1%, standard error 0.9) are too imprecise to separate from the White-owned rate.

Who owns franchise firms: each group's share of franchise employer firms

The second way to read franchise owner demographics is composition: what share of all franchise firms each group owns. Of the 132,362 franchise employer firms Census could classify by owner in 2023, 61.2% were male-owned, 19.1% female-owned and 19.7% owned equally by men and women (ABS data year 2023, our calculation). Among all responding employer firms the female-owned share was 23.8%, so female-owned firms are under-represented among franchise firms by 4.7 points.

Minority-owned firms held 27.3% of franchise employer firms in 2023 against 20.6% of all responding employer firms. Most of that gap comes from Asian-owned firms: 18.1% of franchise firms against 10.6% of all firms. Black or African American-owned firms held 2.7% of franchise firms and Hispanic-owned firms 6.1%. Veteran-owned firms held 4.9% of franchise firms, close to their 4.8% share of all firms.

For where these firms are located, see our franchise statistics by state; this page does not repeat state or metro shares.

Veterans and food service: where the franchise gaps sit by industry

Accommodation and food services is the most franchised sector for almost every owner group. In 2023, 19.3% of all responding employer firms in that sector operated as a franchise (ABS data year 2023). Among the owner groups with a reliable estimate, it is the top sector for all except Asian-owned firms, whose highest reliable share is in educational services (26.1%, standard error 3.6), and American Indian and Alaska Native-owned firms, whose only reliable cell is construction.

Veteran-owned firms are where the sector view changes the picture. Across all industries, veteran-owned firms franchised at the same 4.6% rate as nonveteran-owned firms in 2023. Inside accommodation and food services, 24.5% of veteran-owned firms were franchised against 18.9% of nonveteran-owned firms. The 5.6-point gap has a standard error of 3.16 (z = 1.77), which clears the 90% test but not a 95% test, and the veteran cell rests on an estimated 1,484 franchise firms with a count RSE of 16.0%. Treat it as a lead, not a settled difference.

Within the same sector, female-owned firms franchised at 11.9% against 22.2% for male-owned firms, and Asian-owned firms at 23.4% against 17.4% for White-owned firms. Both gaps clear the 90% test. Management of companies and enterprises (NAICS 55) is left out of the sector ranking because its estimates swing widely: the all-firm share is 15.6% with a standard error of 9.0 points.

How franchise shares changed from 2019 to 2023

The franchise share for all responding employer firms moved from 4.9% in 2019 to 4.7% in 2023, a change of -0.2 points that does not clear the 90% test (ABS data year 2019, ABS data year 2023). Five group changes do clear it. The Asian-owned share fell from 9.9% to 7.9% and the minority-owned share from 7.4% to 6.2%. The female-owned share fell from 4.2% to 3.7%. The veteran-owned share rose from 3.9% to 4.6%, while the nonveteran-owned share fell from 4.9% to 4.6%.

The 2012 Survey of Business Owners put the Asian-owned franchise share at 9.4% and the Black or African American-owned share at 7.4% (SBO 2012 table SB1200CSCB67). The SBO is a different survey with a different frame, so the step down to the ABS years is shown for context and not tested as a trend.

Age, education and experience of franchise owners (2007 microdata)

No current federal table links franchise status to owner age, education or experience. The ABS asks about owner traits and about franchising, but its published owner tables have no franchise split. The newest public file that allows the link is the 2007 Survey of Business Owners microdata; every figure in this section is a 2007 estimate from 1,437,687 owner records.

In 2007, 50.0% of owners of franchise employer businesses had bought the business, against 23.6% of other owners, and 42.6% had founded it, against 66.0%. 46.7% of franchise owners had been self-employed or owned a business before, against 38.5%. Franchise owners were less likely to call the business their main source of income (54.2% against 69.3%) and less likely to work 40 or more hours a week in it (52.6% against 63.2%). 19.3% were born outside the United States, against 13.7%.

Franchise owners skewed slightly younger: 32.8% were under 45 in 2007, against 29.5% of other owners, and the median franchise owner fell in the 45 to 54 band. Bachelor’s degrees were only slightly more common (50.2% against 48.9%). For scale, 51.3% of all employer-firm owners were 55 or older in 2023 (ABS owner table AB2300CSCBO); that table has no franchise split, so it shows the wider owner population, not franchise owners.

How survey-based franchise owner figures compare

The International Franchise Association’s 2026 Value of Franchising report, conducted by Oxford Economics, surveyed 2,929 franchisees in June and July 2025 (IFA and Oxford Economics report). It reports that 64% said the franchise was the first business they owned and 30% said they would not own a business without franchising. These are the IFA’s own figures from an advocacy-commissioned online survey, weighted to Census firm counts by industry; they are not Census estimates.

The same report reads ABS data year 2023 as showing about 26% of franchises and about 19% of non-franchised businesses owned by people of color. Our recomputation from the Census file matches when publicly held and unclassifiable firms stay in the base: 26.7% of all franchise firms and 19.9% of non-franchise firms were minority-owned. With classifiable firms as the base, the franchise figure is 27.3%.

For first-business rates, the ABS owner table gives a benchmark for all owners, not franchise owners: 48.7% of owners of responding employer firms said the business was their first in 2023 (ABS AB2300CSCBO). Widely shared statistics pages give franchise owner gender and veteran shares without a primary source; the Census figures above are the citable ones.