To have a deeper insight into how many black businesses there are, black entrepreneurship statistics are a good way to get started.
In this article, you can find out about female and male black entrepreneurs, their age, popular industries they do business in, and more. Also, we can see whether there is a rise, an incline, or stagnation in new black entrepreneurs. Finally, these figures can also tell us about the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has had on black businesses.
Time to dig in!
Key Black Entrepreneurship Statistics (Editor’s Pick)
- 31% of black entrepreneurs in the US are Baby Boomers.
- Millennials and Gen X make up for 67% of US black entrepreneurs.
- 46% of black entrepreneurs in the US are women.
- Only 7% of black businesses hire six to 10 people.
- The state of New York has the highest number of black businesses.
20 Black Entrepreneurship Statistics
1. More than seven in 10 black enterprises (72%) are profitable.
According to Guidant Financial, 72% of black enterprises are profitable. This is according to data from 2020. Moreover, so are 78% of all enterprises. In conclusion, that means that, on average, black businesses are less profitable.
Source: Guidant Financial
2. Black entrepreneurs are the largest of all people of color entrepreneur groups.
According to data from Guidant Financial, 36% of all people of color entrepreneurs are black. The second-largest group of people of color entrepreneurs is Latino/Hispanic at 24%. Asian-Americans make up for 18% of people of color entrepreneurs, while 10% are mixed race.
Source: Guidant Financial
3. One in five business entrepreneurs offers business services.
According to Guidant Financial, 20% of business entrepreneurs offer business services. Moreover, other popular industries include food, health, fitness, and beauty.
Source: Guidant Financial
4. 81% of all new black entrepreneurs started a business out of opportunity and not a necessity in 2018.
More than eight in 10 (82%) new black entrepreneurs from 2018 started a business not out of necessity, but opportunity. Furthermore, according to Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship, so did 86% of white entrepreneurs. Finally, 85% of Latino entrepreneurs and 92% of Asian entrepreneurs also started a business out of opportunity and not a necessity.
Source: Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship
5. Over three in 10 US black entrepreneurs are Baby Boomers.
While 2% of black entrepreneurs in the US belong to the Silent Generation, there are way more of those who belong to the Baby Boomer generation. According to Guidant Financial, 31% of black entrepreneurs in the US are Baby Boomers.
Source: Guidant Financial
6. Each month in 2019, 240 black adults out of every 100,000 became entrepreneurs.
Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship bring interesting data for 2019. Each month of that year, 240 black adults out of every 100,000 became entrepreneurs. For comparison, so did 290 white adults and 310 Asian adults.
Source: Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship
7. Almost seven in 10 (67%) of black entrepreneurs are Millennials or Gen X in the US.
The large majority of the black entrepreneurs in the US belong to Generation X or Millennials (67%). This number is higher than the overall number of young entrepreneurs (56%).
Source: Guidant Financial
8. In the US, there are more than 2 million black businesses.
According to data from the US Census Bureau, there are over 2 million black businesses in the United States. Out of them, 124,000 are characterized as “employer firms”, which means that they employ people other than just the proprietor(s).
Source: US Census Bureau
9. The largest US black-owned business is World Wide Technology.
According to data from Black Business, the most successful and the largest black-owned business in the United States is World Wide Technology. For instance, they have a revenue of over $2 billion.
Source: Black Business
10. The highest number of black-owned businesses in the US is in New York.
The state of New York has the highest number of black-owned businesses in the US. For instance, black businesses account for 10.6% of all businesses in the state of New York. The second-largest number is in Georgia, then third in Florida, and then fourth in the state of Texas.
Source: Black Business
11. The highest ratio of black-owned businesses in the US is in Washington, D.C.
Almost three in 10 (28%) of all businesses in Washington, D.C. are black-owned. This makes Washington the place with the highest ratio of black entrepreneurs in the US. Secondly, 20% of all businesses in Georgia and Maryland are black-owned. Thirdly, so are 19% of businesses in Illinois.
Source: Black Business
12. In 2018, less than 4% of startups were founded by black women.
According to Project Diane, 4% of startups were founded by black women. While this is a small number, it has doubled between 2016 and 2018. Before 2016, the number of black female-owned businesses was 2%.
Source: Project Diane
13. In the US, almost one in two black entrepreneurs are female (46%).
According to black entrepreneurship statistics from 2021, 46% of all black entrepreneurs are women. For comparison with white female entrepreneurs, this number is 53% higher. This is according to Guidant Financial 2021 report.
Source: Guidant Financial
14. There are 2.7 million black businesses owned by women in the US.
According to data presented by American Express, 2.7 million black businesses are owned by women in the US. This statistic figure is from a 2019 report.
Source: American Express
15. Black enterprises employ 920,000 people.
Out of millions of black entrepreneurs in the United States, they have approximately 920,000 employees altogether. Moreover, their total annual payroll is $23.9 billion.
Source: Black Business
16. Only 7% of black entrepreneurs hire six to 10 people.
Some interesting figures show that only 7% of all black businesses hire between six and 10 people. In comparison, the national average in the US is 12%. This means that black businesses are usually smaller than the national average.
Source: American Express
17. In 2021, black businesses are up by 38% from 2020.
In 2021, the number of black businesses surged 1.5 million, 38% up from 2020. This is promising data tells us that the number has started going up after the effect the global pandemic has had on businesses.
Source: University of California, Santa Cruz
18. From 2014 to 2018, 20% of the US black population started a business.
According to Babson’s report from 2020, 20% of the US black population started a business between 2014 and 2018. Furthermore, the analysis found that, at the same time, 12% of the white population and 13% of the Latino population started a business.
Source: Babson
19. The number of black-owned businesses grew by 31.2% between 2002 and 2017.
In the period between 2002 and 2017, the number of black entrepreneurs and their businesses grew by 31.2%. At the same time, the black population increased by 16.7% between those years.
Source: US Census Bureau
20. 36% of black entrepreneurs decided to start a business to be their own boss.
One in three black entrepreneurs (36%) said they started their own business because they wanted to be their own boss. Moreover, 24% did it to pursue their passion, 17% found inspiration in the new business idea. Also, 17% said they started a business because they were not happy with corporate America.
Source: 2019 Annual Business Survey
Final Verdict
To sum everything up, black entrepreneurship statistics show that the number of black businesses is on the rise, and even black female-owned enterprises. Moreover, we can also see where in the United States the highest number and the highest ratio of black entrepreneurs is. Also, black female entrepreneurs statistics also tell us how many black women are entrepreneurs. Finally, entrepreneur statistics are also crucial here to see the overall figures concerning entrepreneurship.
