Last updated: 17 October 2026 Are more people starting finance businesses? The Census Bureau counts applications for new employer ID numbers each month by industry. This tracker follows finance and insurance (NAICS 52) since 2019.
22,300 applications to start finance and insurance businesses were filed in September 2026, up 36.5% on September 2025’s 16,334, per the Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics (not seasonally adjusted).
January to September 2026 totals 180,963, up 3.2% on the same months of 2025 (175,347) and 7.2% on 2024 (168,783). The highest year since our data starts in 2019 was 2021, with 191,348 by September.
On a seasonally adjusted basis September 2026 was 20,548, the highest month in the past year and up 9.7% on September 2025.
This covers all of finance and insurance (NAICS 52): banks, lenders, insurance agents, investment advisers and trading firms together. Census doesn’t publish a trading-only series, so this is a broad signal, not a count of new prop firms.
Monthly applications, last 13 months
| Month | Applications (not adjusted) | Seasonally adjusted | High-propensity (not adjusted) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2026 | 22,300 | 20,548 | 6,598 |
| Aug 2026 | 18,161 | 20,129 | 5,376 |
| Jul 2026 | 22,225 | 20,244 | 6,375 |
| Jun 2026 | 18,029 | 19,786 | 3,735 |
| May 2026 | 17,665 | 19,688 | 3,637 |
| Apr 2026 | 23,178 | 19,304 | 4,871 |
| Mar 2026 | 20,012 | 19,177 | 4,281 |
| Feb 2026 | 19,490 | 19,729 | 4,122 |
| Jan 2026 | 19,903 | 19,297 | 4,487 |
| Dec 2025 | 19,471 | 18,786 | 4,103 |
| Nov 2025 | 16,773 | 19,792 | 3,657 |
| Oct 2025 | 20,834 | 18,960 | 4,516 |
| Sep 2025 | 16,334 | 18,732 | 3,613 |
High-propensity applications are those Census judges more likely to become businesses with payroll, based on features like a planned wages date or a corporate form.
January to September, 2019 to 2026
| Year | Applications, Jan–Sep | High-propensity, Jan–Sep |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 180,963 | 43,482 |
| 2025 | 175,347 | 51,305 |
| 2024 | 168,783 | 48,879 |
| 2023 | 168,250 | 51,693 |
| 2022 | 173,177 | 47,748 |
| 2021 | 191,348 | 51,480 |
| 2020 | 139,892 | 42,893 |
| 2019 | 123,605 | 37,790 |
How to read this tracker
Census publishes new figures monthly. Not-seasonally-adjusted figures swing with the calendar, so year-on-year comparisons of the same month or year-to-date totals are more reliable than month-to-month changes. For established trading businesses, see the trading industry by state; for jobs, securities industry employment and finance job postings; for the UK, own-account trading companies at Companies House.
Sources
- US Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics, NAICS 52 (Finance and Insurance), series BA_BA and BA_HBA, retrieved via the Census time-series API on 17 October 2026.
Method
Figures are taken as published. Year-to-date totals are our sums of the not-seasonally-adjusted monthly figures.
Caveats
Headline figures are not seasonally adjusted, as noted. Census also publishes adjusted figures, shown alongside.
An application for an Employer Identification Number is not a business that opens; many never hire or trade.
Census revises recent months, and some applications have no industry code, so the industry figures don’t sum to the national total.
How to cite this
Prop Data Lab, “Finance and Insurance Business Applications Tracker”, updated 17 October 2026, https://propdatalab.com/finance-business-applications-census-tracker/
The table and the CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: copy, chart or republish them, commercial use included, as long as you link back to this page. Source data: US Census Bureau (US government work).
Common questions
How many finance business applications were filed in September 2026?
22,300 for finance and insurance (NAICS 52), not seasonally adjusted, against 16,334 in September 2025. Seasonally adjusted: 20,548.
Are finance business applications rising in 2026?
Yes. January to September 2026 totals 180,963, up 3.2% on the same period of 2025.
Does this count new prop firms?
Not separately. NAICS 52 includes all finance and insurance businesses; Census doesn't publish a prop trading figure.
What is a high-propensity business application?
One the Census Bureau judges likely to turn into a business with payroll, for example because it lists a planned date for paying wages.