Statistics on Entrepreneurship

Some statistics from the Kauffman Foundation

• From 1980–2005, firms less than five years old accounted for all net job growth in the United States.
• More than half of the companies on the 2009 Fortune 500 list were launched during a recession or bear market, along with nearly half of the firms on the 2008 Inc. list of America’s fastest-growing companies.
• Contrary to popularly held assumptions, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity belongs to the 55–64 age group over the past decade. The 20–34 age bracket has the lowest.
• Only 16 percent of the fastest-growing and most successful companies in the United States had venture investors.
• More than a quarter of technology and engineering companies started in the United States from 1995 to 2005 had at least one key founder who was foreign-born.
• Foreign nationals residing in the United States were named as inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed in the U.S. in 2006.

Related: Y-Combinator’s Fresh Approach to Entrepreneurship – Entrepreneur Results – Kiva Fellows Blog: Nepalese Entrepreneur Success