On Wednesday, April 8, 2020, the Census Bureau released a weekly regional Business Formation Statistics (BFS) series. Due to the overwhelming response from our data users and requests for state-level data, we researched and developed a state-level weekly series. Today, we released the updated weekly BFS with business application data at the national, regional and state levels through the week ending April 11, 2020.
The Census Bureau will publish the weekly BFS series at the national, regional and state levels each Thursday by 12 p.m. EDT. The weekly data will be available for a limited time, and we will assess the demand for these data on an ongoing basis. The new weekly data series provide timely and granular information on potential new business development and can provide insight on the state of the economy. The weekly release will include only the business application series.
The BFS represents a step toward providing timely, relevant and granular statistics that meet data user needs, while minimizing burden on respondents. The original research team that developed the BFS included researchers affiliated with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, University of Maryland, and University of Notre Dame.
Source: U.S. Department of Census Bureau
