Number of small and large firms, 1968-1970.-The total number of business firms, excluding agriculture and related industries, was established at approximately 834 million (8,763,000) for the calendar year 1970. Of major significance is the composition of the two sectors comprising this total. The amount of business income (receipts) is the principal classifier for the delineation of small and large concerns. New information, from IRS publications, in respect to business income (receipts) classes is restricted to the years 1969 and 1968. These are presented along with comparative data for three earlier periods in the two following tables. Because of space consideration, data are limited to the larger firms, those with business income (receipts) of "$500,000 or more."

To formulate a total for the small firms sector for any year following 1967, a start can be made by reviewing the totals established for 1967. As we have seen, for that year the IRS total business population was set at 8,214,000 firms after omitting firms engaged in agriculture and associated groups. By inductive and deductive reasoning, the number of small business firms for 1967 was approximated to be 8 million (actually 7,989,000). Most of this total would have been eligible for SBA aid if the need and circumstances arose. Some exceptions, according to SBA, were gambling or speculative firms, newspapers, and television and radio stations. Regardless of the reductions which should be made to establish the number of firms eligible for SBA aid, present concern is directed to a total for recent years for the number of firms in the small-concern sector that correlates with the 8 million (actually 7,989,000) figure for 1967. This latter figure, hopefully, is not in error by more than 50,000.

If it can be assumed that the ratio of 7,989,000 (small firms) to 8,214,000 (total firms) which prevailed in 1967 held for 1969, the new total for small firms in 1969 would have been in the proximity of 8,365,000 (8,599,000 total firms). It is thought that the large firms total for 1969 would have at least 235,000, contrasting with 225,000 for 1967.

The estimated increase in the number of large firms from 225,000 in 1967 to 235,000, or possibly an even higher total, in 1969 might be challenged. However, the accompanying figures, recently published by IRS, support a sizeable increase. For example, the number of firms with business receipts of $500,000 or more for 1969, 1968, and 1967, after the omission of the Agriculture group was as follows:

1969 (4.1 percent of total). 1968 (3.8 percent of total) 1967 (3.6 percent of total).

350, 321

316, 511 297, 569

Not all of the nearly 53,000 increase in this income group between 1967 and 1969 could be considered to represent the large-firms sector. The percentages given suggest an increase of about 12 percent or about 250,000 in the large-firm segment.

The few data at hand indicate that the 1970 total number of business firms, excluding "Agriculture, forestry and fisheries," was approximately 834 million (preliminary total is 8,763,000) and that the smallfirm sector comprised at least 97% of the total, or about 81⁄2 million.

Size of corporate firms, measured by assets. Although the Small Business Act makes no mention of assets in its recital of measures of size to designate small-business concerns, size is often thought of it terms of assets owned or controlled. Therefore, a series of tables are now presented portraying the relative size of business firms arrayed by the amount to total assets. This measure must be confined to corporations. Information is given for this legal entity grouping in annual IRS publications. As explained therein, total assets were net after reduction by accumulated depreciation, amortization, and depletion, and by the reserve for bad debts.

In this series, data are presented first for the number of firms, then for amount of business receipts, and finally, for the amount of assets. Figures are given for 6 different years concluding with 1970. Fortunately, the number of class intervals for these distributions and the range of each are sufficient to reveal vital information about the very small corporations as well as about the extremely large corporations. The smallest size in this series is "Under $50,000." At the other extreme, data are given for firms controlling "$250 million or more" in total assets. As often happens in historical presentations, a few statistical cells have no data because of the method followed in the compilation.

It may be helpful to call attention to the assembly of data for these tables. Basic numbers are given for all industry divisions which are followed by numbers for Agriculture and its associated groups. The residual (by far the largest portion) represents the business firms of most interest for this report. Hence, derived percentages and averages are provided only for this residual group. A few facts concerning corporations, which can be gained from a perusal of the tables, are worthy of special mention. In the latter group of industries, it can be seen that, in 1970, there were 1.629,756 corporations (out of a 8,763,122 total). Of those corporations, 948,066 had assets "Under $100,000," and 1,189 had assets of "$250 million or more." Such totals become more revealing when the percentages (in the fourth table in the series) corresponding to these figures are reviewed. It is apparent that corporations in 1970 represented 18.6 percent of the total firms and that that group contributed 85.1 percent of the total business revenue. That portion of the corporations each controlling "Under $100,000" assets represented 10.8 percent of all firms but contributed only 5.0 percent of the business revenues. The largest corporations, those with assets of "$250 million or more" comprised less than 0.05 percent of all firms but contributed 31.9 percent of the business revenue.

Since assets information is available only for corporations, the table on page 54 provides data on business receipts and assets for corporations from 1958 through 1970. It can be seen that corporations, in 1970, which possessed assets of "Under $100,000" formed 58.2 percent of all corporations, contributed only 5.9 percent of the revenue recorded for all corporations, and, strangley, possessed only 1.2 percent of all corporation assets. What about the largest corporations in the same years? They represented 0.1 percent of all corporations, 37.5 percent of the business of corporate receipts, but 58.4 percent of the total assets held by corporations. The percentages of business receipts and of total assets for these largest corporations have increased in each successive year (or period).