Using Census Bureau Data, County Business Patterns, Economic Census, BLS Employment Data and SBA Business Databases for B2B Prospecting and Market Sizing
By Email ExtractorPublished 6 min read
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Government Economic Data for Business Prospecting
The US government publishes economic and business data that is free, authoritative and updated regularly. This data helps B2B sales teams, marketing agencies, franchise developers and market researchers identify where businesses are, how many there are, what industries they represent and how the market is changing. Unlike commercial data providers, government data is free to use and does not require a licence:
Data source
What it provides
Update frequency
Best for
County Business Patterns (CBP)
Business establishment counts by NAICS code by county and ZIP code; payroll; employment
Annual (1-2 year lag)
Business density by industry and geography; market sizing
Economic Census
Detailed industry data: revenue, expenses, employment, number of firms by geography
Every 5 years
Deep industry analysis; total addressable market calculation
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Employment by industry; wage data; job openings; industry growth projections
Monthly / quarterly / annual
Industry growth trends; employment-based prospecting
SBA business databases
Small business profiles; government contract recipients; disaster loan recipients
Varies
Small business prospecting; government contractor identification
Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS)
Population; income; housing; demographics by geography
Annual (1 and 5-year estimates)
Market sizing for consumer-facing B2B (retail, restaurants, healthcare)
Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics (BFS)
New business applications by state and industry
Monthly
New business prospecting; startup ecosystem analysis
FDIC bank data
Bank branch locations; deposits; institution data
Quarterly
Financial services prospecting; community banking market analysis
Data Access Methods
Census Bureau data
Source
Access method
Format
Notes
data.census.gov
Web interface; CSV download
CSV, API (JSON)
Primary portal for Census data; search by topic and geography
Census API
REST API with developer key (free)
JSON
Programmatic access to all Census datasets; rate-limited
Census FTP
Bulk download
CSV, fixed-width text
Full dataset downloads for large-scale analysis
County Business Patterns
data.census.gov > "County Business Patterns"
CSV, API
Filter by NAICS code, geography (state, county, ZIP, metro area)
Economic Census
data.census.gov > "Economic Census"
CSV, API
Available for 2017, 2022; detailed industry data
Business Formation Statistics
census.gov/econ/bfs
CSV
Monthly new business application data by state
BLS data
Source
Access method
Format
Notes
bls.gov/data
Web interface; series search
CSV, XLSX
Data by series ID; multiple data types
BLS API
REST API (registration required, free)
JSON
Version 2 allows 500 queries/day with registration
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
bls.gov/cew
CSV
Employment and wages by industry and county; quarterly
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
bls.gov/oes
CSV, XLSX
Employment and wages by occupation and geography
BLS Projections
bls.gov/emp
CSV, HTML
10-year industry and occupation growth projections
SBA data
Source
Access method
Format
Notes
USAspending.gov
Web interface; CSV download; API
CSV, API (JSON)
Government contract awards by recipient; searchable by NAICS
SAM.gov
Web interface; data download
CSV
Entity registrations (businesses registered for government contracting)
SBA Disaster Loan data
sba.gov/funding-programs/disaster-assistance
CSV
Businesses that received disaster loans (may need ongoing services)
SBA Lending data
sba.gov
CSV
7(a) and 504 loan approvals by business and geography
Prospecting Applications
Market sizing by geography
What you want to know
Data source
How to find it
How many businesses of type X are in area Y
County Business Patterns: filter by NAICS code and geography (county, ZIP, metro)
CBP tells you establishment count, employment range and payroll
What is the total revenue of industry X in area Y
Economic Census: filter by NAICS code and geography
Economic Census provides revenue, expenses, payroll by industry and geography
Is industry X growing or shrinking in area Y
Compare CBP data across years; BLS QCEW for more recent quarterly data
Year-over-year change in establishment count and employment
Where are there underserved markets for service X
Compare business density (CBP) to population density (ACS) by geography
Low business-to-population ratio indicates potential underserved market
Where are new businesses forming
Business Formation Statistics: filter by state and NAICS-linked application type
Monthly new business application counts by state; growth trends
Building prospect lists from government data
Government databases provide market intelligence (how many, where, what size) but generally do not include individual business contact information. The workflow combines government data for targeting with commercial or public sources for contact details:
Step
What to do
Data source
1. Identify target market
Use CBP to find geographic areas with high concentration of target NAICS codes
County Business Patterns
2. Size the opportunity
Use Economic Census for revenue and employment data in target areas
Economic Census
3. Confirm market growth
Use BLS QCEW and BFS to verify the market is growing, not declining
BLS QCEW; Census BFS
4. Find individual businesses
Use state business registries, industry directories, Google Maps data, LinkedIn, professional associations
State Secretary of State databases; industry directories; LinkedIn
5. Compile and deduplicate contacts
Upload files from all sources to Email Extractor to extract and deduplicate
ACS (population, median income, household count by ZIP/county)
Determine if territory has sufficient population and purchasing power
Competitor density
CBP (establishment count for competitor NAICS codes by ZIP/county)
Identify territories with low competitor presence
Business density for B2B franchises
CBP (establishment count for customer NAICS codes)
Determine if territory has enough potential B2B customers
Growth trajectory
BFS (new business applications); BLS (employment growth)
Prioritise territories in growing markets
Workforce availability
BLS OEWS (occupation employment and wages by area)
Determine if territory has available workforce for franchise staffing
Government contractor prospecting
What you want to know
Data source
How to find it
Which companies received government contracts in industry X
USAspending.gov: filter by NAICS code; download award data
Award recipient, amount, agency, NAICS, location
Which companies are registered to do government business
SAM.gov: entity registration data
Company name, NAICS codes, size standard, location, contact
Which companies received SBA loans (growing businesses)
SBA lending data: 7(a) and 504 loan approvals
Business name, loan amount, NAICS, location, bank
Which companies received disaster loans (may need services)
SBA disaster loan data
Business name, location, disaster type, loan amount
Terms of Service and Usage
Allowed
Not allowed
Downloading and using all Census, BLS and SBA public data for business purposes
Misrepresenting government data as proprietary
Using Census and BLS APIs within rate limits
Exceeding API rate limits or scraping web interfaces aggressively
Combining government data with commercial data sources
Claiming government endorsement of your analysis
Publishing analysis based on government data with attribution
Re-selling raw government datasets without adding value
Using SAM.gov data for business development
Using SAM.gov data for prohibited purposes (specified on site)
Processing Government Data for Prospecting
Government databases provide market intelligence in CSV and JSON formats. When combining this data with contact information from state business registries (CSV, HTML), industry directories (HTML), professional association member lists (HTML), trade show attendee lists (CSV), LinkedIn research and Google Maps data, upload all source files to Email Extractor to extract and deduplicate email addresses across all sources. Business contacts appear across state registries, industry directories, professional associations and commercial databases, so deduplication creates a clean prospect list mapped to the market intelligence from government data.
