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 provides detailed information on business creation activity. It includes twelve different series—four related to business applications and eight concerning business formations. These statistics are available at the national, regional, and state levels. For Puerto Rico, four monthly business application series are included as part of the standard BFS product.
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 development of these statistics involved collaboration with economists from several institutions: “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.”
Both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data are made available in each release. The full dataset is released monthly.
There was no separate news release associated with this announcement; only a tip sheet was provided.
