Statistics available on women-owned businesses

The National Women's Business Council has released "A Compendium of National Statistics on Women-Owned Businesses in the U.S.," a single-source document of the most up-to-date statistical information about women's business ownership in the United States, according to a release from the NWBC.

This compendium, prepared for the NWBC through a contract with the Center for Women's Business Research, provides a comprehensive guide of statistics on women-owned businesses.

The compendium, "is as indispensable to those of us who counsel and help prepare women to become business owners as the dictionary is for those who write," stated Wilma Goldstein, associate ad-ministrator, Office of Women's Business Ownership, U.S. Small Business Admin-istration.

The compendium contains the most sought-after facts and figures on wo-men's entrepreneurship in the United States, including:

the number, size and economic strength of women-owned businesses;

recent growth trends;

demographic characteristics of wo-men business owners. It also of-fers research-based information on key programmatic issues, such as:

access to debt and equity capital;

opportunities in federal procurement;

women-owned firms in international trade; and

a bibliography of both source references and recommended publications.

The NWBC is a bipartisan federal government council created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the president, Congress, U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Interagency Committee on Women's Business Enterprise on issues relating to women-owned businesses.

The full compendium report is available for viewing and downloading at no charge on the National Women's Bus-iness Council's Web site at www. nwbc.gov.