Source: U.S. Census Bureau  

Release: Business Formation Statistics  

Units:  Number of Quarters, Not Seasonally Adjusted

Frequency:  Quarterly

Notes:

The Business Formation Statistics are now released on a monthly basis, and the quarterly series will no longer be updated. See BFDUR8QTOTALNSAMD for an alternative.

A measure of delay between business application and formation, similar to https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/DUR4QNSAMD. The difference is that the window for business formation is restricted to eight quarters, rather than four. The series span the same period as https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BF8QNSAMD.