Small Biz Watch: Fostering entrepreneurship
By James Pethokoukis
Posted 9/29/05
There's a ton of fascinating info on small-business start-ups in a new study from the Kauffman Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship. Using data from the census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period 1996 to 2004, researcher Robert Fairlie of the University of California–Santa Cruz found the following, among things:
- An average of 0.36 percent of the adult population created a new business each month. That translates into approximately 550,000 new businesses per month.
- The entrepreneurship rate was relatively constant in the late 1990s but has risen slightly in the past few years from 0.36 percent in 1996 to 0.40 percent in 2004.
- Entrepreneurial activity is substantially higher among men than among women. From 1996 to 2004, the average rate of entrepreneurship for men was 0.46 percent vs. 0.28 percent for women. In addition, the rate for men is on the increase, rising to 0.5 percent in 2002 vs. 0.43 percent in 2001.
- Activity increased most in the West and South in the past few years. The entrepreneurship rate in the West increased from 0.42 percent in 2001 to 0.49 percent in 2004. The rate in the South increased from 0.35 percent to 0.41 percent.
To see the whole study, click here: www.kauffman.org (PDF).
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