Entrepreneurship Statistics: 30 Key Entrepreneur Facts for 2025

Entrepreneurship is critical to the global economy. But just as fish in the ocean can’t see the water, business owners can struggle to understand the importance of their work.

Consider the California Gold Rush as an example. Between 1848 and 1855, about 300,000 miners and entrepreneurial merchants moved to the state. This influx caused a 2,000% population increase and led to an estimated $2 billion in wealth extraction. Experts credit California’s rapid industrialization and its 1850 entry into the Union to this event. Research also shows former gold rush towns saw higher rates of entrepreneurship in the 20th and 21st centuries. Once a culture of entrepreneurship is fostered, it’s a gift that keeps on giving.

Starting your own business isn’t just a way to earn money. It’s a critical economic activity with both immediate and lasting effects. These entrepreneurship statistics highlight the crucial role of business innovation and provide a snapshot of the current state of entrepreneurship today.

30 practical entrepreneur facts for 2025

Entrepreneurship is foundational to contemporary social and economic systems, but doesn’t have a single, agreed-upon definition.

Before you dive into the stats, take a moment to familiarize yourself with these key terms:

• Small business: A company with a number of employees and total annual revenue that meets the US Small Business Administration’s size standards, which depends on industry.

• Entrepreneur: An entrepreneur is someone who starts their own business. Entrepreneurs typically start as small business owners and may scale their business over time.

• Startup: This term typically refers to a new business that an entrepreneur intends to scale, and they typically require a series of funding stages to do so.

General entrepreneur statistics

1. Entrepreneurs filed 5.2 million new business applications in the US in 2024, a 48.6% increase over 2019.

2. Most US firms (99.9%) employ fewer than 500 people. This means almost all businesses in the US qualify as small businesses and most entrepreneurs are small business owners.

3. Most US adults (86%) say small businesses have a positive effect on the country.

4. According to a 2025 Guidant Financial report, retail is the most popular industry for small business entrepreneurs; 15% operate in-person or ecommerce businesses, followed by 13% in the food and restaurant industries and 10% in health, beauty, and fitness services.

5. The same Guidant study found 28% of entrepreneurs started their businesses due to a desire to be their own boss. Meanwhile, 22% were motivated due to dissatisfaction with corporate life. Pursuing a passion was the third most popular motivator (13%). This suggests frustration with corporate America is a motivator for many entrepreneurs.

6. As of 2025, S corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) are the two most popular legal structures for small business owners, representing 39% and 34% of surveyed entities, respectively.

7. According to the Center for American Progress, the number of startups (defined as businesses less than a year old) grew by 16% between 2019 and 2023. This represents a 167% increase over the growth rate observed between 2015 and 2019.

8. A 2025 report from The University of Colorado Boulder and the US Census Bureau found engaging in ecommerce, maintaining a website, operating as a corporation or partnership, and having employees all positively correlate with business survival rates.

Global entrepreneurship statistics

9. Experts agree entrepreneurship is critical to the global economy, citing it as a major driver of job creation worldwide, according to an article in Journal of the Knowledge Economy.

10. Ecuador has the highest global entrepreneurship rate: One in three Ecuadorians reported starting or running a new business in 2024.

11. Some 41% of US small businesses source more than 10% of their goods from outside the country.

12. Entrepreneurs increasingly prioritise environmental sustainability in 78% of global economies, a trend primarily driven by female entrepreneurs in high- and middle-income regions.

US entrepreneur statistics by demographic

13. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center analysis of recent Census Bureau data, 61% of small businesses are majority-owned by men, and only 22% are majority-owned by women. 

14. In 49% of global economies, women entrepreneurs have insufficient access to the resources required to start a small company. That said, according to a 2025 report by Wells Fargo, US women-led businesses continue to expand their role in the economy, with plenty of examples for inspiration. In 2024, women-owned businesses employed 12.9 million workers and accounted for $3.3 billion in revenue.

15. Women-owned businesses make up 43% of nonemployer firms (businesses with no employees outside of the owner).

16. Individuals from minority groups own 20.9% of all US small businesses with employees as of 2021. Within this group, 10.9% of entrepreneurs identify as Asian, 6.9% as Hispanic, 2.7% as Black, 0.8% as American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 0.1% as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

17. Guidant Financial reports members of Gen X own 49% of US small businesses. Baby boomers own 30% and millennials own 21%.

18. Some 70% of small business owners hold a bachelor’s degree, and 27% also have a master’s degree.

19. The US Census Bureau’s 2023 Annual Business Survey (which covers 2022) found 194,585 Black-owned businesses in the US employ 1.6 million people and generate $211.8 billion in annual revenue. A 2025 Pew Research Center report comparing these figures to 2017 data found a 57% increase in the volume of Black-owned businesses and a 66% increase in revenue from 2017 to 2022.

20. Healthcare and social assistance, as well as professional, technical, and scientific services, are the two most popular fields for women-owned businesses in the US. There’s nearly 230,000 companies in the first category and almost 220,000 in the second.

Employment entrepreneurship statistics

21. US small-firm entrepreneurs provide nearly half of private-sector jobs.

22. In April 2025, 56% of small business owners said they were hiring or attempting to hire employees that month, and 85% of those businesses reported difficulty attracting qualified applicants.

23. According to a 2024 report from Pew Research Center (based on US Census Bureau data), most small firms with employees have limited staff: 49% have four or fewer employees, 26% have between five and 19, and 8% have between 20 and 99. Only 1% have between 100 and 499 employees.

24. According to the Center for American Progress, entrepreneurs filed 5.2 million likely employer business applications from 2021 to 2023, a 34% increase over the 2017 to 2019 period, showing strong growth.

Funding and finance entrepreneurship statistics

25. In an April 2025 survey of small business owners by the National Small Business Association (NSBA), 59% of entrepreneurs described economic conditions as worse than they were six months prior. Despite this, 69% said that they expect growth in the coming year.

26. In a Guidant Financial survey, 3% of entrepreneurs say it costs less than $50,000 to open a business in 2025; 28% estimate startup costs to be between $50,000 and $175,000.

27. According to the NSBA, 41% of surveyed small businesses generate at least $1 million in annual revenue; only 18% of small businesses bring in less than $100,000.

28. The Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS), a collaboration between all 12 US Federal Reserve Banks, found that 46% of small firms with employees earned a profit in 2023. 

29. In the SBCS, 55% of small businesses reported use of the business owner’s personal funds to offset money shortages in 2023.

30. Federal Reserve Bank data shows that credit cards, loans, and lines of credit are the three most popular funding sources for small businesses less than two years old.