About 79.6 percent of new U.S. businesses survive their first year, 50.6 percent are still operating at five years, and 34.7 percent reach ten years, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Survival varies sharply by industry: five-year rates run from about 44 percent in the information sector to about 66 percent in agriculture.
What share of new businesses survive one, five, and ten years?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks every private-sector establishment that opens through its Business Employment Dynamics program, which makes it the most reliable survival data available. Across all industries, about 79.6 percent of new businesses are still operating one year in, 50.6 percent at five years, and 34.7 percent at ten years. In the most recent cohort — businesses that opened in the year ended March 2024 — 22.1 percent had closed by March 2025, which is close to the long-run first-year average.
That means the widely repeated claim that 90 percent of small businesses fail is simply wrong. Roughly half of new businesses are still trading after five years, and a third are still trading after ten. What the data does show is that closure risk is front-loaded: the single riskiest stretch is the first twelve to twenty-four months, when a business is still proving demand and has the thinnest cash reserves.
Which industries have the highest and lowest survival rates?
Survival rates by sector, based on BLS Business Employment Dynamics data, showing the share of new establishments still operating at one, five, and ten years:
- Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting — 87.5% at one year, 66.2% at five, 50.5% at ten
- Real estate, rental and leasing — 83.9% / 58.7% / 42.2%
- Retail trade — 84.2% / 58.3% / 41.7%
- Manufacturing — 82.6% / 57.7% / 43.6%
- Utilities — 80.7% / 56.6% / 45.7%
- Construction — 76.0% / 53.9% / 40.1%
- Information — 74.9% / 44.3% / 29.1%
- Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction — 79.4% / 40.2% / 24.5%
Notice that the ranking reshuffles over time. Mining survives its first year better than the information sector does, but by year ten only 24.5 percent of mining establishments remain against 29.1 percent in information — commodity price cycles catch up with them. Retail looks stronger than its reputation at one and five years, then thins out at ten. The gap between the best and worst five-year rate is about 26 percentage points, which is a much bigger spread than most owners assume.
Why survival rates differ so much between industries
Three factors explain most of the variation. The first is revenue predictability: sectors built on contracts, leases, licences, and repeat necessity purchases have visible cash coming in months ahead, while sectors that depend on winning each new project start every quarter from zero. The second is asset backing. A business with equipment, land, or inventory has collateral to borrow against and something to sell in a bad year, which buys time that a service business with a laptop does not have.
The third is timing of cash, and it is the one owners underestimate. A construction firm can be profitable on paper and still fail while waiting 30 to 90 days on invoices it has already spent money to fulfil. That is why construction, transportation, and food service show weaker survival despite steady demand — the gap between paying for the work and getting paid for it is where most closures actually happen. Our small business failure rate statistics break down the causes in more detail.
How to read these numbers for your own business
An industry survival rate is a base rate, not a forecast. It describes the average of thousands of businesses, including undercapitalised startups and part-time ventures, and says nothing about a specific operator with a real customer base. The useful move is to treat a low industry rate as a signal about which risk to manage: in construction and trucking, manage collection timing and keep a buffer; in information and retail, watch demand and fixed costs; in capital-intensive sectors, avoid tying every dollar up in one asset. A simple cash flow management routine matters more than the sector you picked.
Access to capital before the crunch is part of that buffer. The Broker Shop is a funding broker, not a funder — we match owners with over 50 competing lenders, so one application reaches the funders whose guidelines your business meets, including funders that work comfortably with industries the banks treat as high risk. Compare the funding options, and it is free to apply — checking your options won't affect your credit score.
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See What I Qualify For →The bottom line: About half of new U.S. businesses reach year five, industry five-year survival ranges from roughly 44 to 66 percent, and the difference is driven less by demand than by revenue predictability and how long you wait to get paid.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Business Employment Dynamics (establishment survival tables) · BLS — 1-year survival rates for new business establishments · Commerce Institute — business survival rates by industry, compiled from BLS BED data · LendingTree — analysis of BLS first-year closure rates (March 2024 to March 2025 cohort)
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