Census CBP MCP Server

Census CBP

Census County Business Patterns provides establishment counts, employment, and annual payroll by NAICS industry code at county/state/national level. Covers all industries except farming, railroads, and most government. Key variables: ESTAB (establishments), EMP (employees), PAYANN (annual payroll), EMPSZES (employment size classes). Use NAICS2017 for industry filtering.

Data Model

• Variable metadata — browse available CBP variable names, labels, and data types to construct valid data queries.
• Variables — ESTAB (number of establishments), EMP (number of employees mid-March), PAYANN (annual payroll in $1000s), EMPSZES (employment size class code).
• Geographies — nation (us:), state (state:), county (county:*&in=state:XX), metro areas.
• Industry codes — NAICS 2017 codes at 2-6 digit levels. 2-digit = sector (72 = accommodation & food), 3-digit = subsector, etc.
• Size classes — EMPSZES codes: 001=all, 212=1-4 employees, 220=5-9, 230=10-19, etc.

Gotchas

• Year in URL — dataset year is part of the URL path: /data/2021/cbp.
• NAICS parameter — use NAICS2017=XX for industry filtering. Use 00 for all industries.
• Suppressed data — some cells suppressed for confidentiality; value shows as null or a flag code.
• Latest year — CBP data lags; 2021 is latest as of 2024.