CoPilot's study on US Corps with >20 employees and >$5 million in sales in 2023.

That is an interesting question. Unfortunately, I could not find any specific data on how many corporations and LLCs in America have less than 20 employees and less than $5 million in 2023 sales. However, I can provide some related information that might help you estimate the answer.

According to the web search results, there were 33.2 million small businesses in the US in 2019, and 99.7% of them had fewer than 500 employees2. Out of these, 89% had fewer than 20 employees, which means there were about 29.5 million small businesses with less than 20 employees in 2019. However, this number includes all types of small businesses, not just corporations and LLCs.

To narrow down the number of corporations and LLCs, we can use some data from the IRS. According to the IRS, there were 2.6 million C corporations and 8.8 million S corporations in 2018. There were also 4.1 million partnerships, which include LLCs3. Assuming these numbers did not change much in 2019, we can estimate that there were about 15.5 million corporations and LLCs in the US in 2019.

However, not all of these corporations and LLCs are small businesses with less than 20 employees and less than $5 million in sales. According to the IRS, the average receipts for C corporations in 2018 were $5.8 million, for S corporations were $3.4 million, and for partnerships were $6.5 million3. These averages are skewed by the large corporations and LLCs that have much higher sales than the small ones. Therefore, we need to find the median receipts, which are the middle values that divide the distributions in half.

Unfortunately, the IRS does not provide the median receipts for corporations and LLCs, but it does provide the median receipts for sole proprietorships, which are another type of small business. According to the IRS, the median receipts for sole proprietorships in 2018 were $25,0003. Assuming that the median receipts for corporations and LLCs are similar to or higher than the median receipts for sole proprietorships, we can infer that most corporations and LLCs have less than $5 million in sales.

Therefore, to answer your question, we need to find the number of corporations and LLCs that have less than 20 employees and less than $5 million in sales. This number is likely to be a large fraction of the 15.5 million corporations and LLCs that we estimated earlier, but we cannot determine the exact number without more data. However, we can use some assumptions and calculations to get a rough estimate.

One assumption we can make is that the distribution of employees and sales for corporations and LLCs follows a Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. This means that 80% of the corporations and LLCs have 20% of the employees and sales, and 20% of the corporations and LLCs have 80% of the employees and sales. This is a common pattern observed in many phenomena, such as income, wealth, and productivity.

Using this assumption, we can estimate that 80% of the 15.5 million corporations and LLCs, or 12.4 million, have 20% of the employees and sales. If we assume that the total number of employees for corporations and LLCs is proportional to the total number of small businesses with less than 20 employees, which is 29.5 million, then we can estimate that 20% of the employees for corporations and LLCs is 5.9 million. Dividing this by 12.4 million, we get an average of 0.48 employees per corporation or LLC. This means that most of these corporations and LLCs have less than one employee, which is possible if they are run by a single owner or partner.

If we assume that the total sales for corporations and LLCs is proportional to the total receipts for small businesses, which was $9.9 trillion in 2018, then we can estimate that 20% of the sales for corporations and LLCs is $1.98 trillion. Dividing this by 12.4 million, we get an average of $159,677 in sales per corporation or LLC. This means that most of these corporations and LLCs have less than $5 million in sales.

Therefore, based on these assumptions and calculations, we can estimate that about 12.4 million corporations and LLCs in America have less than 20 employees and less than $5 million in sales. However, this is a very rough estimate that depends on many factors and uncertainties, so it should not be taken as a definitive answer. I hope this helps you with your research.