The Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation's recent May study on entrepreneurial activity reported consistent growth in the entrepreneurial sector, with an increasing number of start-ups driven by those foreign born. Over the past decade approximately 465,000 people create new businesses (on average) each month - which represents an average of 0.29 percent of the adult population. However, the study showed changing entrepreneurial patterns in gender, demographics, geographics and ethnic composition - indicating an evolving "face" of the American entrepreneur.
The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity (with its data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics) measured results that concluded that at the individual owner level for start-ups Asian, Latino and immigrant population segments were significantly higher than the native-born U.S. segment for entrepreneurial activity, while entrepreneurial activity for African Americans dropped.
Entrepreneurial activity for men for the years 2005-2006 remained steady, while the rate of activity for women dropped slightly.
Kauffman also reported that the states with the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity were Montana, Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma and Maine; the states with the lowest activity were Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina , Illinois and Delaware. As a region, the Midwest replaced the Northeast with the overall lowest levels of entrepreneurial activity.
As Kauffman's president Carl Schramm pointed out, the U.S. continues to be a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity - indicating the confidence of the American populace in the opportunities promised by small business creation. Small businesses' role in the overall economy thus continues to expand, with a significant number of jobs created by these emerging enterprises.
Shivonne Byrne, Innuity CMO
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