WASHINGTON (August 19, 2015) — The U.S. Census Bureau released preliminary results from the 2012 Survey of Business Owners (SBO)^[1] yesterday and minority-owned businesses continue to grow significantly faster than nonminority-owned businesses. The number of minority business enterprises (MBEs) increased 39 percent between 2007 and 2012^[2] (from 5.8 million to 8.0 million), or more than three times faster than population growth among minorities. Employment at minority-owned firms increased 33 percent to 7.7 million jobs, while gross receipts were up 53 percent from 2007. In contrast, the number of non-minority firms shrank by five percent between 2007 and 2012.  Employment at nonminority firms increased seven percent, or less than one-fourth as fast as in MBEs and receipts in nonminority firms increased 27 percent or half as fast as in MBEs,