Report: Florida most entrepreneurial state; Texas is 10th

(The Center Square) – Florida is the most entrepreneurial state in the U.S., having the highest percentage of the population starting a new business. It leads seven of the top 10 most entrepreneurial states run by Republican governors.

Florida has 13,238 small businesses per 100,000 residents and Florida’s new start-up businesses created the highest number of jobs in their first year. Florida also leads the U.S. with new business formations; over 2.6 million new businesses were formed in the last four years.

Florida’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country and has been below the national average for nearly three years. With over one million Floridians joining the workforce, Florida has outpaced the national rate for labor force growth and private sector job growth for over two years.

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“Florida’s pro-business, freedom first policies make Florida the best state in the nation to do business,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said, adding that he appreciates “Floridians who have taken a risk to start their own ventures.”

Florida’s top entrepreneurial ranking comes from a new report published by The Digital Project Manager. To determine “the most entrepreneurial state,” the report analyzed the percentage of a state’s population that started a new business, the percentage of start-ups that are still active after one year, the number of small businesses per 100,000 people, and the growth rate of business applications.

Florida has the highest percentage, 61%, of the population that has started a business, the report found. Among them, 86% “started their venture out of choice rather than necessity, i.e., because they were unemployed or required another stream of income.”

Florida start-ups “have the highest number of jobs created in the first year with 6.53 new jobs per 1,000 people,” it notes.

Georgia ranked second, followed by Michigan, Oklahoma, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, California, Idaho and Texas. Seven of the governors of these states are Republican.

Nuala Turner, editor of TheDigitalProjectManager.com, said the findings of the report “should serve as encouragement to the budding entrepreneurs of the states mentioned above: it's worth taking the leap to turn your passion into an income.”

“Entrepreneurship and new businesses are a driving force in economic growth and create opportunities for communities, allowing them and their people to thrive,” Turner continued.

With the second-largest population in the U.S., Texas ranked 10th with 10,163 small businesses per 100,000 people. The report notes that business applications grew in Texas from 2019 to 2022 by 52%, and 81% of new businesses are still active after a year. New businesses also create 5.18 new jobs per 1,000 people, it found.

The number translates to roughly 2.8 million small businesses in Texas. They represent 99.8% of all businesses in the state, Boost Suite notes. It also points out that “Microenterprises have managed to permeate every sector in the Texas economy, making them a crucial cog in the wheel that represents the larger US economy.”

Texas ranks first in the U.S. for having the largest number of minority small business owners, ranks second for having the greatest number of veteran small business owners, and over 45% of all Texas employees are small business employees, Boost Suite adds.

Last month, Texas again broke its own employment records, as it has every month over the past two years. Texas also leads the U.S. again for jobs added over the month and over the year.