More than one in 18 adult women in the US — 5.7% — is a business owner. Alaska boasts the highest rate of female entrepreneurship, with 9.4% of the adult women in the state owning businesses. Mississippi is the lowest with only 1 in 25 or 4.0% of the women in the state acting as business owners, according to a new analysis from Center for Women’s Business Research.
Wisconsin ranks 22nd among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in the number of women-owned firms in 2002, 13th in employment and 16th in sales, the analysis shows.
The records indicate that as of 2002, there are 103,231 private firms in Wisconsin of which women are majority owners – accounting for 27% of all privately held businesses in the state.
Additionally, the research found that women-owned firms in Wisconsin employ more than 199,000 people and generate nearly $23.3 billion in sales.
The center estimates there are 21,677 women-owned employer firms in Wisconsin, with the number of those firms growing 40% from 1997 to 2002 – more than three times the 12% growth rate of all employer firms in the state.
The study determined that the 29,600 women-owned firms in the Milwaukee-Waukesha area employ 66,036 persons and generate more than $7 billion in revenue.
The research brief, "Women’s Business Ownership by State," is based on analysis of both business and household Census data and draws from the December 2001 report by the Center, "Women-Owned Businesses in 2002: Trends in the U.S. and 50 States."
The variance in the rates of women’s business ownership from state to state is consistent with overall trends of business ownership by all adults in those states. The states with the highest rates of overall business ownership were also highest for women’s entrepreneurship and those with the lowest rates were lowest for women’s entrepreneurship.
The study also showed that Wisconsin ranks 26th in the growth in the number of women-owned firms between 1997 and 2002, 25th in employment growth and 24th in sales growth.
Rates of business ownership among all adults range from a high of 15.1% in Montana to a low of 8.0% in West Virginia. Though men are currently more likely than women to be business owners, (10.4% of all adults compared to 5.7% of women), female entrepreneurship has been growing at twice the national average since 1997.
"Our research shows that women’s entrepreneurship is flourishing throughout the US. Nearly 6% of all adult women now own and run businesses and contribute substantially to the nation’s economy," said Myra M. Hart, chair, Center for Women’s Business Research. "The analysis of this data enables us to compare business participation rates among women and all adults in every state and creates a baseline for measuring changes and progress in the future."
States with the highest rates of business ownership, both among women and overall, are clustered in the Mountain and Northeast regions of the US. Among women, states with the highest rates of business ownership are: Alaska; Colorado; Montana; Vermont; Wyoming; Oregon; Utah; Idaho; Maine; and New Mexico.
The lowest rates of business ownership are found primarily in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
The complete research brief, which contains ranking information for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, both alphabetically and by rate of ownership, is available at the Center’s Web site:
www.womensbusinessresearch.org
Oct. 11, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
