New Data on the Number of ESOPs

In mid-April the NCEO released its most recent estimates of the number of ESOPs and ESOP-equivalent plans. Based on data from the Department of Labor and methods for estimating companies missing from that data, the NCEO revised upwards the number of ESOPs it believes existed at year-end 2008 from 10,800 plans to our new estimate of 11,100 plans. We can now estimate the number of ESOP participants for 2008 at 13.6 million, up from 12.7 million at the end of 2007. Plan terminations in 2008 were 3.2%, the lowest number on record. Based in part on the termination data, the NCEO estimates that there were at least 10,900 ESOPs at the end of 2009 and 11,300 at the end of 2010.