FPDS Query Library
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Is Very Small Business

Boolean or coded indicator showing whether the vendor identified on the award is classified as a very small business. In FPDS, this is a socioeconomic status flag at the vendor-site level and may be stored as a value such as 0/1 or another code representation depending on the extract.

Family: Award
Category: Vendor Site Details
Data Type: boolean_or_code_flag
Semantic Type: flag
Mapping: flattened_fpds_xml_field
AI Confidence: high

Variable Overview

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness
Title
Is Very Small Business
FPDS Path
award/vendor/vendorSiteDetails/vendorSocioEconomicIndicators/isVerySmallBusiness
Description
Boolean or coded indicator showing whether the vendor identified on the award is classified as a very small business. In FPDS, this is a socioeconomic status flag at the vendor-site level and may be stored as a value such as 0/1 or another code representation depending on the extract.
Business Meaning
This field supports socioeconomic set-aside analysis, small business utilization tracking, and compliance reporting for awards made to very small businesses. It helps analysts measure participation by extremely small firms and assess whether procurement actions align with small business objectives.
Example Value
0
Observed Non-Null Count
111,509,025

FPDS Compare

FPDS Query Variable
content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness
FPDS XML Path
award/vendor/vendorSiteDetails/vendorSocioEconomicIndicators/isVerySmallBusiness
Mapping Type
flattened_fpds_xml_field
Comparison Summary
FPDS Query flattens the original nested FPDS XML path 'award/vendor/vendorSiteDetails/vendorSocioEconomicIndicators/isVerySmallBusiness' into the SQL-ready variable 'content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness'.

Use Cases

  • Dictionary lookup and field explanation
  • SQL filtering and grouping
  • Analytical reporting and reusable query building
  • Contractor profiling and competitor analysis

Common Usage

  • Filter awards to very small business vendors
  • Calculate award dollars or counts for socioeconomic reporting
  • Segment procurement activity by vendor size category

Common Mistakes

  • Assuming the flag is the same as overall small business status
  • Counting null or blank values as false without checking the source encoding

Query Guidance

Use this field in WHERE clauses or CASE expressions to isolate very small business awards, for example by matching the affirmative code or true value in the loaded dataset. When summarizing, group by the normalized boolean/coded value and exclude nulls only when you intend to measure confirmed classifications.

SQL Examples

Preview values

SELECT
    content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness AS is_very_small_business
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness IS NOT NULL
LIMIT 25

Flag distribution

SELECT
    content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness AS flag_value,
    count() AS record_count
FROM fpds.data
WHERE content__award__vendor__vendorSiteDetails__vendorSocioEconomicIndicators__isVerySmallBusiness IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY flag_value
ORDER BY record_count DESC

Each dictionary item includes SQL-ready examples generated alongside the variable metadata, allowing immediate use in FPDS Query for filtering, aggregation, and analysis.