---
title: "Business dynamics: the annual series for one geography"
method: GET
path: "/api/v1/census/business/dynamics"
tags: ["Statistical Agencies"]
---

# Business dynamics: the annual series for one geography

`GET /api/v1/census/business/dynamics`

Establishments, firms, employment, job creation and destruction (total, from openings and closings, from continuers), net job creation, establishment entry and exit, firm deaths, and the matching rates, from the Census Bureau's Business Dynamics Statistics (`timeseries/bds`), 1978 to the latest published year, nationally or for one state. `from` defaults to the ten years to the latest; a `to` past the latest year is clamped with a note; a range wholly past it is an empty answer with a reason. Counts are integers, rates are percent of the Davis-Haltiwanger-Schuh denominator (`denom`), decoded by the variable's own type.

## Query parameters

- `geo` string — us (national) or state (with state=<postal code>).
- `state` string, nullable — State postal code (CA, TX, DC, ...) when geo=state.
- `from` string, nullable — First year (YYYY, 1978 or later).
- `to` string, nullable — Last year (YYYY); default: the latest published year.

## Response `200`

One row per year, oldest first, every measure decoded.

- EnvelopeCensusBusinessDynamicsData
  - `data` CensusBusinessDynamicsData, required
    - `geo` string, nullable — us or state.
    - `state` string, nullable — State postal code when geo is state; null nationally.
    - `name` string, nullable — United States, or the state name as the Bureau publishes it; null for an empty answer at a state.
    - `from` union — First year requested (default: nine years before the latest).
      - integer
      - number
    - `to` union — Last year requested; the latest published year by default, and after a clamp.
      - integer
      - number
    - `count` union — Number of items in this result set.
      - integer
      - number
    - `data` CensusBusinessDynamicsDatum[], nullable — One row per year, oldest first.
      - `year` union — Calendar year of the row (BDS years end in March of the year shown).
        - integer
        - number
      - `estab` union — Number of establishments.
        - integer
        - number
      - `firm` union — Number of firms.
        - integer
        - number
      - `emp` union — Number of employees (March payroll).
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_creation` union — Jobs created from expanding and opening establishments during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_creation_births` union — Jobs created from opening establishments during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_creation_continuers` union — Jobs created from expanding establishments during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_destruction` union — Jobs lost from contracting and closing establishments during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_destruction_deaths` union — Jobs lost from closing establishments during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_destruction_continuers` union — Jobs lost from contracting establishments during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `net_job_creation` union — Net jobs created: job creation minus job destruction during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `estabs_entry` union — Establishments born during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `estabs_exit` union — Establishments exited during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `firmdeath_firms` union — Firms that exited during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `firmdeath_estabs` union — Establishments associated with firm deaths during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `firmdeath_emp` union — Employees associated with firm deaths during the last 12 months.
        - integer
        - number
      - `estabs_entry_rate` union — Establishment entry rate, percent of establishments.
        - integer
        - number
      - `estabs_exit_rate` union — Establishment exit rate, percent of establishments.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_creation_rate` union — Job creation rate, percent of denom.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_creation_rate_births` union — Job creation rate from opening establishments, percent of denom.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_destruction_rate` union — Job destruction rate, percent of denom.
        - integer
        - number
      - `job_destruction_rate_deaths` union — Job destruction rate from closing establishments, percent of denom.
        - integer
        - number
      - `net_job_creation_rate` union — Net job creation rate, percent of denom.
        - integer
        - number
      - `reallocation_rate` union — Reallocation rate: job creation plus destruction minus the absolute net, percent of denom.
        - integer
        - number
      - `denom` union — Davis-Haltiwanger-Schuh denominator: the average of current and prior-year employment, the base of every rate.
        - integer
        - number
    - `dataset` string, nullable — Census dataset path the rows come from.
    - `source` string, nullable — Upstream data source identifier.
    - `reason` string, nullable — Present only when count is 0: why the answer is empty (a range past the latest year names it).
    - `note` string, nullable — Present when the requested `to` was past the latest published year: the range was clamped to it, and `to` carries the clamped value.
  - `meta` SugraMeta, required — Metadata on a /api/v1/* response envelope built through `helpers.response.sugra_response`, which is how routes are expected to answer. A route that assembles its own `meta` dict carries only the keys it writes itself, so an optional field below can be absent because this response has nothing to report OR because that route does not build its envelope here - the two are not distinguishable from the outside (API-43).
    - `endpoint` string, required — Requested endpoint path.
    - `data_time` string, required — ISO 8601 timestamp the data on this response is stamped with. It is the source's own timestamp whenever the source supplied one this API could read; when it did not, this field falls back to the value of `response_time` and `data_age_days` is omitted, so the PRESENCE of that field is the signal to read - with the one exception named in its own description, a route that substitutes its own current time for a source timestamp it never received. Usually UTC (`Z`), but a source stating its own numeric offset keeps it (2026-04-16T14:30:00+09:00) rather than being converted a second time. For a source that publishes by period this is the period's START (see `period`) and for one that publishes by calendar day it is that day's midnight - in neither case a moment at which anything was observed or released.
    - `response_time` string, required — ISO 8601 UTC timestamp when this response was produced.
    - `provider` string, required — API name and version.
    - `data_age_days` number, nullable — Age of the data in days at the moment this response was produced, i.e. `response_time` minus `data_time`. Present ONLY when the timestamp this response is stamped with is a clock time that could be read as a real instant. It is ABSENT - never 0 - in every other case. Absent when no readable source timestamp was supplied, because `data_time` then repeats `response_time` and a zero age would assert that the data is current precisely where its true age is unknown. Absent when the source names a calendar day, a month, a quarter or a year (see `period`): the instant is then a boundary this API anchored at midnight, and time since a day or a quarter BEGAN is a different quantity from the age of the data - a daily series is out by up to a day, a quarterly one by up to a quarter. A midnight counts as such a boundary whichever zone it is stated in, and whether the source stated it or this API anchored it. The one case this field cannot see is a route that substitutes its own current time for a source timestamp it never received: the substituted value is a real, readable instant and is indistinguishable from one the source stated, so the age reads as roughly 0. The shared cache-and-fetch helper behind most routes stopped doing that (API-43), but the presence of this field is a statement about the timestamp the response carries, not a guarantee about the route that supplied it. Rounded to 0.001 day (86.4 seconds), so 0.0 is a real measured age anywhere within roughly +/-43 seconds and not a stand-in for unknown; a source stamping an instant in the future reports a negative value (-0.001 or less) rather than being clamped. Sources publish on very different cadences, so a non-zero age is normal, not an error. Preserve absence in client code: a generated client that materialises a missing optional number as its numeric default turns 'age unknown' back into 'age zero', which is the exact confusion this field exists to remove.
    - `source` string, nullable — Identifier of the primary upstream source used for this response.
    - `attribution` string, nullable — Human-readable attribution mandated by an upstream source (e.g. a securities regulator or self-regulatory organization). Present only on responses whose source requires the owner and source to be clearly identified. Do not remove or alter it when using the response.
    - `fallback_used` boolean, nullable — True when the primary source failed and a fallback produced the data.
    - `fallback_chain` string[], nullable — Ordered list of sources attempted, in the order they were tried.
    - `cached` boolean, nullable — True when this response was served from the internal cache.
    - `stale` boolean, nullable — True when the cached response was returned after the upstream rate-limited or errored. Clients can use this to detect degraded data.
    - `period` string, nullable — Unit of observation, when the source publishes by period rather than by instant. `data_time` carries the period's START instant so it stays machine-readable; this field preserves what that instant used to mean, which the conversion would otherwise erase. Present only for such sources, and only when the source hands the API the label itself - a client that converts the period to its start instant before building the envelope loses the label, though not the age exclusion, which is decided by the instant. Note that `data_age_days` is omitted whenever this is present, because an age measured from a period start is not a freshness figure.
    - `notes` string, nullable — Data-quality caveat about THIS response - how old the underlying report is, a chokepoint AIS lower-bound, or that a source-reported `data_time` could not be read and the response time is shown instead. Distinct from `attribution`, which is a licensing obligation. Multiple caveats are joined with ' | '. Present only when there is one.

## Other responses

- `401` — Missing or invalid `x-api-key` header. JSON body with a stable `code` distinguishing `missing_api_key` (no header sent) from `invalid_api_key` (header sent, key not accepted); any other 401 source carries the generic `unauthorized` with its detail as `reason`. Plus `hint`. `plan` is always null on 401 - an unauthenticated request has no plan; quota exhaustion is 429, not 401.
- `422` — Validation Error
- `429` — Daily rate limit exceeded. Check `X-RateLimit-Reset` for the next window.
- `502` — The upstream source answered with an error or a malformed body. `detail` carries the source, the upstream status and a retry hint.
- `503` — Upstream unreachable (typed `detail` object with source and retry hint) or the legacy blanket unavailability (string `detail`).
- `504` — The upstream source did not answer within the client deadline.

## Changes

- **2026-09-01** `328d061c12ca` — 3 info
  - added the optional property `meta/data_age_days` to the response with the `200` status
  - added the optional property `meta/notes` to the response with the `200` status
  - added the optional property `meta/period` to the response with the `200` status
- **2026-08-30** `87582f2e0110` — 1 info
  - endpoint added

[Change history](https://skmtc.dev/sugra/apis/sugra-api/changes/api/v1/census/business/dynamics/get.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/sugra/apis/sugra-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/sugra/apis/sugra-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/sugra/sugra-api/revisions/328d061c12ca/schema)