US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing

California had the highest nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing of 51 states in 2021, at $49.98 billion. Alaska had the lowest, at $638.35 million. The median was $4.07 billion and the figure for the United States was $336.21 billion. Source: the U.S. Census Bureau.

Highest49,979.2California

Lowest638.3Alaska

Median4,06951 states

United States336,212.5History

Map of states, 2021

Under 1,300
1,300 to 2,100
2,100 to 4,100
4,100 to 6,000
6,000 to 8,800
8,800 and over

USD million, 2021. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. Boundaries: U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.

All states, 2021

USD million. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

Rank	States	2021 USD million	Change on 2020
1	California	49,979.2	+9.8%
2	New York	29,417.1	+7.4%
3	Florida	27,366.6	+12%
4	Texas	26,945.5	+11.9%
5	New Jersey	12,910.9	+7.4%
6	Illinois	11,089.3	+7.3%
7	Pennsylvania	10,765.5	+7.2%
8	Ohio	9,116.3	+4.9%
9	North Carolina	8,969.1	+7.8%
10	Georgia	8,530.2	+10.2%
11	Michigan	8,525.5	+6.6%
12	Massachusetts	7,929.6	+7.2%
13	Washington	7,816.5	+9.4%
14	Colorado	7,659.3	+8%
15	Virginia	7,438.9	+6.5%
16	Arizona	6,525.3	+10%
17	Tennessee	6,369.5	+15.4%
18	Maryland	5,768.1	+4.5%
19	Minnesota	5,388.5	+5.1%
20	Missouri	5,380.7	+7.4%
21	Wisconsin	4,814.8	+4.3%
22	Indiana	4,775.1	+5.9%
23	Oregon	4,485.1	+9.1%
24	Connecticut	4,301.7	+6%
25	South Carolina	4,275.5	+10.8%
26	Utah	4,069	+9.7%
27	Alabama	3,762.2	+9.6%
28	Louisiana	3,641.3	+8.5%
29	Nevada	3,436.5	+9.8%
30	Kentucky	3,143.4	+5.4%
31	Oklahoma	2,905.6	+7.4%
32	Iowa	2,646.7	+6.2%
33	Kansas	2,421.5	+5.7%
34	Idaho	2,128.8	+10.4%
35	Arkansas	2,075.5	+7.7%
36	Nebraska	1,946.9	+8.4%
37	Mississippi	1,746.7	+6.9%
38	New Hampshire	1,593.1	+7.4%
39	Hawaii	1,564.2	+28.9%
40	Montana	1,418.6	+11.9%
41	Delaware	1,367.3	+11.7%
42	Maine	1,356.9	+10.8%
43	New Mexico	1,321.3	+10.4%
44	South Dakota	1,110.1	+9.1%
45	Rhode Island	1,109	+6.8%
46	North Dakota	998.1	+5.3%
47	Wyoming	985.4	+14.8%
48	District of Columbia	823.4	+5.3%
49	West Virginia	779.4	+4.4%
50	Vermont	679.6	+8.9%
51	Alaska	638.3	+7.1%

Other periods

About this ranking

Receipts of businesses without paid employees in real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), in millions of current US dollars, from the U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics.

Nonemployer Statistics: businesses with no paid employees that are subject to federal income tax, mostly the self-employed, counted from tax records, with receipts above small minimum amounts. Census says some years are not comparable with earlier ones, and they are marked as series breaks: 2018 in every sector (businesses were reclassified from their descriptions, which moved many out of other services), 2022 in every sector (new receipts cutoffs) and 2017 in utilities (the same reclassification). Most nonemployers are sole proprietors whose business may be a side activity. Published about 18 months after the reference year. Receipts are published in thousands of dollars with noise added to protect individual businesses, and are not adjusted for inflation.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the states are compared on one definition. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Census Bureau. Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes (US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/

MLA 9

Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes, US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021. U.S. Census Bureau, 14 Mar. 2024, https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Census Bureau. 2024. Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021.

Harvard

U.S. Census Bureau (2024) Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes, US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{census_us_states_by_nonemployer_2021,
  author = {{U.S. Census Bureau}},
  title = {{Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes: US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021}},
  year = {2024},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021. Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}

RIS

TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Census Bureau
TI  - Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes: US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/03/14
PB  - U.S. Census Bureau
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Census Bureau. Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2021/historical-datasets/. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -

Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Embed code

<iframe src="https://invokely.ai/embed/rankings/nonemployer-receipts-real-estate/us-states?period=2021" width="760" height="500" title="US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing, 2021, chart from Invokely" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin"></iframe>

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank US states by nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing using official data, and cite the source.

rank_places {"indicator":"nonemployer_receipts_usd_real_estate","level":"region","within":"United States","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=nonemployer_receipts_usd_real_estate&level=region&within=United%20States&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which state has the highest nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing?

California, with $49.98 billion in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Which state has the lowest nonemployer business receipts: real estate, rental and leasing?

Alaska, with $638.35 million in 2021.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics, state and US files: receipts (RCPTOT), real estate and rental and leasing (NAICS 53), all legal forms and receipts sizes. Retrieved 2026-10-12.