43% of small businesses are owned by women. Here鈥檚 how that breaks down in your state.
Women have made significant strides in the entrepreneurial space in recent years. Currently, 43.1% of small business owners are women, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. With women-led small businesses employing in 2019, it鈥檚 unsurprising that in 2021 the U.S. Small Business Administration launched 20 new Women鈥檚 Business Centers nationwide.
According to 2022 Guidant polling, the three most common reasons cited for they wanted to be their own boss (57.9%), were dissatisfied with working in corporate America (37.7%), or wanted to pursue their passion (29.8%). Although being an entrepreneur is no easy feat, 73.7% of female business owners said they were 鈥渟omewhat or very happy.鈥 The top industries for female small-business owners were retail and e-commerce, followed by health, beauty, and fitness, as well as business services.
compiled statistics from the U.S. Small Business Administration鈥檚 to find out the number of women-owned small businesses in each state. The data for this report is sourced from the 2018 American Community Survey, the 2018 Annual Business Survey, and the 2017 Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics, all from the Census Bureau. This data predates the COVID-19 pandemic, which dramatically affected small businesses.
The list is ordered based on the percentage of women-owned small businesses. Two states鈥擭orth Dakota and Rhode Island鈥攄o not report the number of women-owned businesses and were excluded from this list. Small businesses are defined as companies with fewer than 500 employees.
Read on to learn more about the number of women entrepreneurs in your state.
