IRS Statistics

courtesy of IRS

S corporations continue to be the most prevalent type of corporation filing Form 1120, U.S. Tax Return for a Corporation.

• For Tax Year 2002, about 59.8 percent of all corporations filed a Form 1120S.
• The total number of returns filed by S corporations for Tax Year 2002 increased 5.6 percent to nearly 3.2 million, from nearly 3.0 million reported in Tax Year 2001.
• S corporations became the most common corporate entity type in 1997.
• Since then, S corporation return filings have increased by 702 thousand returns.

http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/bustaxstats/article/0,,id=96405,00.html

Partnerships with Rental Real Estate Income (including LLCs reporting as partnerships)

• Number of partnerships 2,242,169
• Number of partners 14,328,108
• Total assets 8,866,560,101,000
• (nearly $9 trillion in real estate assets)
• Total income $2,582,060,669,000
• (The assets produce over 29% income... most of which is eaten up by expenses, of course.)
• Total deductions 2,455,848,170,000
• Net income (less deficit) from trade or business 126,212,499,000
• And it all yields about a 1.5% profit.

For more fun interpreting statistics http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/02pa01ap.xls