"We've got the first generation of significantly educated people," Alford said. "There's a black middle class like never before."

Stanley Ellington, executive director of the Utah Black Chamber of Commerce, said the census estimate was higher than the chamber's count of only 100-150 black-owned businesses statewide.

"I'd wonder where they are," Ellington said.

A key goal of the chamber is to connect entrepreneurs with resources so they can establish themselves. It can be particularly challenging for black business owners to market to the general population since they make up such a small percentage of the population, he said.

"A lot of businesses are starting up, but they have difficulty getting into sustainment," he said. "More than just maintaining itself, a business needs to have prosperity and growth."

In Ogden, Betty Sawyer, chairwoman of the Black Chamber, was also surprised by the census count but pointed out that the chamber, established in February, is still trying to identify businesses.

"There are a lot of smaller home businesses we're still finding out about," Sawyer said. "Most of the census counts are underestimates, versus overestimates. There may be even more black businesses out there."

Some of the report's key findings for Utah included:

• About 60 percent of Utah's black-owned businesses were in Salt Lake County. Nearly 19 percent were in the Ogden-Clearfield metropolitan area.

• Nearly 78 percent of Utah's black-owned business revenue came from retail trade, followed by 4 percent in professional, scientific and technical services; and 4 percent in social assistance.

Some of the report's key national findings included:

• Black-owned firms accounted for about 5 percent of all nonfarm businesses.

• Retail trade, and health care and social assistance services accounted for nearly 29 percent of black-owned business revenue.

• There were 10,727 black-owned firms with receipts of $1 million or more. Revenue for these firms totaled $49 billion, up 22 percent from 1997.

• New York had the greatest number of black-owned firms with 129,324, followed by California with 112,873, Florida with 102,079, Georgia with 90,461 and Texas with 88,769.

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Contributing: The Associated Press

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com