The U.S. Census Bureau has released the Business Formation Statistics (BFS) for January 2026, offering updated data on new business applications and formations across the United States and Puerto Rico. The BFS is a monthly product that provides information at national, regional, and state levels.
Developed in collaboration with economists from 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 BFS aims to deliver timely insights into trends in business creation.
The dataset includes 12 series: four related to business applications and eight focused on business formations. Both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data are available. For Puerto Rico, four monthly business application series are included as part of the standard release.
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 agency noted that this is a regular statistical release without an accompanying news announcement.
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