Number of women-owned businesses increasing

More than one in 18 adult women in the United States 5.7 percent are business owners.

Alaska boasts the highest rate of female entrepreneurship, with 9.4 percent of the adult women in the state owning businesses. Mississippi has the lowest with only 1 in 25 (4 percent) of the women in the state acting as business owners, according to a new analysis from the Center for Women's Business Research.

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 United States 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 those states with the highest rates of overall business ownership also were highest for women's entrepreneurship, and those with the lowest rates were lowest for women's entrepreneurship. Rates of business ownership among all adults range from a high of 15.1 percent in Montana to a low of 8 percent in West Virginia. Though men are currently more likely than women to be business owners (15.5 percent of all men compared to 5.7 percent of women), female entrepreneurship has been growing at twice the national average since 1997. The overall average is 10.4 percent.

"Our research shows that women's entrepreneurship is flourishing throughout the United States. Nearly 6 percent 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 United States. 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. Among women, the states with the lowest rates of business ownership are: Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Ohio.

According to the analysis, Missouri ranks No. 32 in terms of women-owned businesses, with 119,961 women-owned businesses (5.5 percent). There are 297,011 male-owned businesses in the state (14.9 percent). Missouri's overall business ownership rate is 10 percent.

Ownership rates were determined by dividing the number of women-owned firms by the number of adult women in each state.

Founded as the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, the Center for Women's Business Research provides original research to document the economic and social contributions of women-owned firms.