America had roughly 201,000 Black-owned employer businesses in 2023, generating $249 billion in annual receipts. That was a significant expansion from 2017: the number of Black-owned employer firms increased by about 62% over six years. Yet Black entrepreneurs still owned only 3.4% of U.S. employer businesses, compared with Black Americans’ roughly 14.4% share of the population.
The national numbers, however, hide the more interesting story: Black business growth is happening at very different speeds across America’s metros.
Atlanta added more Black-owned employer businesses between 2017 and 2023 than any other U.S. metro. But it actually lost firms in the latest year of available data. Houston, meanwhile, added 902 Black-owned employer businesses in 2023 alone, the largest one-year increase in the country. Minneapolis-St. Paul and Tampa are growing from much smaller bases but at rates that now make them difficult to dismiss as secondary markets.
So this ranking asks the question: Where has the Black employer-business base actually expanded, and which metros now have the economic machinery to turn that growth into jobs, revenue and ownership?
Atlanta leads in six-year Black employer expansion. Houston leads in the latest-year momentum.
How We Ranked the Cities Where Black-Owned Businesses Are Growing Fastest
The ranking uses metropolitan statistical areas rather than municipal boundaries. That is important because founders, employees, customers, investors and suppliers routinely move across city limits within the same regional economy.
The primary dataset is the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey, supplemented by Brookings Metro’s 2026 analysis of comparable ABS data for 2017 through 2023. The latest Census release available as of August 2026 is the 2024 Annual Business Survey, covering reference year 2023. That data lag needs to be understood: “2024 ABS” does not mean the businesses were measured in 2024.
For Census purposes, majority ownership classifications are based on the person or people owning 51% or more of the stock or equity in the business. This article emphasizes employer firms—businesses with paid employees—rather than nonemployer businesses, because crossing from self-employment into hiring is an important measure of economic scale.
We use net Black-owned employer businesses added from 2017 to 2023 as the primary ranking metric. We then test that ranking against three additional indicators: percentage growth over the period, change between 2022 and 2023, and the Black share of the metro population.
The Fastest-Growing Black Business Metros
1. Atlanta: America’s Long-Run Black Business Growth Leader
Atlanta added 6,296 Black-owned employer businesses between 2017 and 2023, reaching 13,091. That represents approximately 92.7% growth from its estimated 2017 base, according to BlackElites calculations using the published Census-based figures. No metro added more.
But there is an important warning inside the result. Atlanta lost 675 Black employer firms between 2022 and 2023, a 4.9% decline from the prior year. Atlanta is therefore the strongest long-term growth market in this ranking, but it was not the strongest current-momentum market in the latest year.
The infrastructure behind Atlanta remains difficult to replicate. Black residents comprise about 37% of the metro population in the Brookings analysis. Atlanta is also home to the Atlanta University Center Consortium—Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Spelman College—which describes itself as the world’s oldest and largest association of HBCUs. That provides a persistent Black professional and talent network beyond the sheer population count.
2. Miami: Scale and Continued Momentum
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach added 4,708 Black-owned employer firms between 2017 and 2023, reaching 9,897. That is roughly 90.7% growth from the 2017 base. Unlike Atlanta, Miami continued moving upward in the latest year, adding another 736 firms between 2022 and 2023, an increase of about 8%.
Miami’s position is particularly notable because it combines Black entrepreneurship with one of America’s most diverse consumer markets. Brookings’ table puts the metro’s Black population share at 23% and its minority population share at 56%.
Miami-Dade’s current business-development planning also includes workshops and individual assistance designed to help Black-owned companies navigate procurement, become county vendors and build the operating capacity required for larger government and corporate contracts. That matters because growth into employer status often requires a larger customer to justify hiring before the entrepreneur can afford to expand payroll.
3. New York: The Largest Current Black Employer Base
New York-Newark-Jersey City added 3,824 Black-owned employer businesses from 2017 to 2023. Its percentage increase—about 28.9%—was less spectacular than several Sun Belt metros, but its 17,042 Black-owned employer firms in 2023 made it the largest current Black employer-business base among the metros in the Census-based top 15.
New York also regained momentum in the latest year, adding 843 firms from 2022 to 2023, second only to Houston in absolute one-year growth.
Procurement provides one pathway to scale. In fiscal 2025, New York City agencies registered 1,118 contracts worth about $364 million through the M/WBE Small Purchase Method. Agencies can use the method for eligible purchases of up to $1.5 million. Those figures cover minority- and women-owned businesses broadly rather than Black firms alone, but they demonstrate the size of a contracting channel available inside the regional business ecosystem.
4. Washington, D.C.: A Contract-Intensive Black Business Economy
The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro added 3,646 Black-owned employer firms between 2017 and 2023, reaching 10,627. That represents roughly 52.2% growth from its 2017 base. The metro added another 141 firms in the latest year.
The Washington region’s advantage is less about cheap operating costs than proximity to one of the world’s largest procurement economies. Within the District itself, the fiscal 2026 Small Business Enterprise Opportunity Guide set a $1.5 billion spending goal with SBEs, $100 million above the previous fiscal year’s goal. The program is based on local small-business and Certified Business Enterprise eligibility rather than Black ownership alone, but it creates a large institutional customer market around which firms can build capacity.
5. Los Angeles: Growth Without a Large Black Population
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is one of the most useful cases in the ranking because it challenges the assumption that Black business growth simply follows the size of the Black population.
The metro had a Black population share of only about 8% in Brookings’ 2023 table, yet it added 3,536 Black-owned employer firms between 2017 and 2023 and reached 8,632. That works out to roughly 69.4% six-year growth. It added another 435 firms in the latest year.
Los Angeles County operates business-preference and certification infrastructure that connects minority, women, disadvantaged, disabled-veteran and local small businesses with public and private procurement opportunities. Its Community Business Enterprise listing is also used by county departments, agencies and prime contractors seeking subcontractors.
6. Houston: The Metro with the Strongest Current Momentum
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands may be the most important city to watch in the entire ranking.
It added 3,232 Black employer businesses from 2017 to 2023, an increase of roughly 83.5%, taking the total to 7,101. Then, between 2022 and 2023 alone, Houston added 902 Black-owned employer firms—14.6% growth and the biggest numerical one-year gain of any U.S. metro. It also overtook Dallas for sixth place nationally in total Black employer firms.
Demography is helping. Dallas, Atlanta and Houston recorded the largest Black population gains among U.S. metros between 2020 and 2023, according to a Brookings analysis of Census population data. Houston also operates in a broader Texas economy that has continued attracting people and companies.
Procurement has historically supplied another route to scale. Houston’s FY2025 Office of Business Opportunity report recorded $579.5 million awarded to certified minority-, women- and small-business enterprises across city contracts and related agreements. Within goal-oriented certified-firm awards, Black-owned certified businesses received about $72.5 million.
There is now a major qualification. In July 2026, a federal judge permanently blocked the race-conscious provisions of Houston’s minority-contracting program as unconstitutional. The city said it would comply while considering an appeal. That ruling does not erase Houston’s business base, but it could alter one of the institutional routes through which minority firms have historically gained public-sector contract access.
Houston is therefore both the strongest recent growth story and a live test of whether Black employer-business momentum can continue when part of the policy infrastructure changes.
7. Dallas-Fort Worth: Major Long-Run Expansion, Then a Pause
Dallas-Fort Worth added 2,893 Black employer businesses from 2017 to 2023, an increase of about 86.2%, reaching 6,251 firms. But it lost 93 between 2022 and 2023.
The long-run foundation remains substantial. Dallas was one of the three metros with the largest Black population gains between 2020 and 2023. The City of Dallas also operates a Business Enterprise Hub offering contract-compliance assistance, training and growth resources, while neighboring Fort Worth has adopted a small-business procurement framework that includes a 5% bid preference on qualifying contracts up to $100,000 and a 30% small-business utilization target for larger contracts.
The latest decline means Dallas should no longer be treated automatically as the Texas momentum leader. Houston has taken that position in the newest Census data.
8. Philadelphia: Steady Expansion Rather Than a Boom
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington added 2,376 Black employer firms over the six-year period, reaching 5,435. That is roughly 77.7% growth, with another 187 firms added between 2022 and 2023.
The city has continued building a contracting and small-business support apparatus. Philadelphia’s Office of Economic Opportunity helps businesses navigate city procurement, certification and contracting requirements. Its 2026–27 Annual Action Plan also budgets for technical assistance to microbusinesses, commercial-corridor investment and other small-business development activities.
Philadelphia lacks Houston’s recent acceleration or Minneapolis’ percentage surge. Its story is one of sustained expansion on an already meaningful business base.
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul: The Breakout Market
Minneapolis-St. Paul is the biggest surprise in the top 10.
The metro had only about 945 Black-owned employer businesses in 2017. By 2023, it had 2,906—a net increase of 1,961 and approximately 207.5% growth. It then added another 479 firms between 2022 and 2023, almost 20% in a single year.
That gives Minneapolis something the larger markets do not have: both strong six-year percentage growth and strong current-year momentum.
Brookings’ 2026 parity update found that Black-owned employer growth in Minneapolis was a significant component of overall employer-business growth in the metro. Minneapolis also operates a Small and Underutilized Business Program under which city contracts above $175,000 may carry goals based partly on the availability of qualified minority- and women-owned firms.
Minneapolis is no longer just a small-base growth story. With nearly 3,000 Black employer firms, it is starting to develop real scale.
10. Tampa-St. Petersburg: Florida’s Emerging Black Business Market
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater increased from an estimated 1,255 Black employer firms in 2017 to 3,073 in 2023. The gain of 1,818 represents approximately 144.9% growth. Another 413 firms were added in the latest year, roughly 15.5%.
Tampa’s broader market is expanding as well. Census population estimates placed Tampa among the U.S. metros with major numerical population gains in the 2022–23 period, while the city’s current economic-development resources direct small and minority-owned companies to the Florida SBDC, Minority and Small Business Development services and the Tampa Bay Black Business Investment Corporation.
Key Takeaways
- Atlanta remains the six-year leader, adding 6,296 Black employer businesses between 2017 and 2023, despite a decline in the latest year.
- Houston has the strongest current momentum, adding 902 Black-owned employer firms from 2022 to 2023, more than any other metro.
- Minneapolis and Tampa are emerging markets, with estimated six-year growth of roughly 208% and 145%, respectively.
- Population alone does not explain the winners: Los Angeles and Minneapolis produced major business growth despite comparatively small Black population shares.
- Capital remains the bottleneck: only 32% of Black employer applicants seeking loans, lines of credit or merchant cash advances received full approval in the Fed’s 2025 survey, versus 57% of white applicants.
FAQs
Which U.S. metro has seen the biggest growth in Black-owned businesses?
Using absolute growth in Black-owned employer businesses from 2017 to 2023, Atlanta ranks first. The Atlanta metro added 6,296 Black employer firms and reached 13,091 in 2023. However, Atlanta lost 675 firms in the latest year, meaning it leads on long-term expansion rather than current momentum.
Which city currently has the fastest momentum in Black-owned employer businesses?
Houston recorded the largest absolute one-year increase in the latest Census data. The metro added 902 Black-owned employer businesses between 2022 and 2023, a 14.6% increase. That pushed Houston’s total to 7,101 and allowed it to overtake Dallas in the national ranking of metros by Black employer-business count.
Why does this ranking focus on employer businesses?
Employer firms have at least one paid employee beyond the owner, making them a useful measure of business scale and job creation. Census counted about 201,000 Black-owned employer businesses in 2023 but roughly 4.4 million Black-owned nonemployer businesses. The large difference highlights how significant the transition from self-employment to hiring remains.
Are Southern cities dominating Black business growth?
Southern metros are particularly important, but the pattern is not exclusively Southern. Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas and Tampa all rank highly, and 60% of the 50 metros with the largest Black employer-business shares are in the South. Yet New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Seattle and Boston also recorded substantial growth.