The U.S. Census Bureau has published the latest Business Formation Statistics (BFS) for December 2025, offering updated data on new business applications and formations across the United States and Puerto Rico. The BFS is a monthly dataset that tracks trends in business creation at the national, regional, and state levels.
According to the Census Bureau, “The BFS provide timely and high frequency information on new business applications and formations in the United States and Puerto Rico. The BFS are a standard data product of the Census Bureau, developed in research collaboration with economists affiliated with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the University of Maryland, and the University of Notre Dame.”
The dataset includes twelve series: four related to business applications and eight to business formations. It offers both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted figures. For Puerto Rico, four monthly business application series are included as part of the regular release.
The full BFS dataset is released each month by the Census Bureau without an accompanying news release; instead, it is made available through a tip sheet.
