• Early Stage Entrepreneurship
  • State Report

State Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship (2025)

The four early-stage entrepreneurship indicators and the summary index are reported at the state level. The first two indicators reflect early entrepreneurial activity among the population, and the next two capture first-year business trends.

Published: May 2026

Author: Robert Fairlie, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, UCLA

Suggested citation: Fairlie, Robert (2026). State Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship in the United States: 2025, Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation: Kansas City.

This is a report published by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation utilizing content and data from multiple sources and external contributors. Every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained in this report, and it is believed to be correct as of the publication date. Nonetheless, this material is for informational purposes, and you are solely responsible for validating the applicability and accuracy of the information in any use you make of it.

The Kauffman Indicators of Early-Stage Entrepreneurship is a set of measures that represents new business creation in the United States, integrating several high-quality, timely sources of information on early-stage entrepreneurship.

This report presents four indicators tracking early-stage entrepreneurship for the years 1996–2025: rate of new entrepreneurs reflects the number of new entrepreneurs in a given month, opportunity share of new entrepreneurs is the percentage of new entrepreneurs who created their businesses out of opportunity instead of necessity, startup early job creation is the total number of jobs created by startups per capita, and startup early survival rate is the one-year average survival rate for new firms. National trends for the four indicators as well as some demographic trends for the rate of new entrepreneurs and opportunity share of new entrepreneurs are reported.

  • The rate of new entrepreneurs in 2025 ranged across states from a low of 0.15 percent in Maine to a high of 0.57 percent in Florida. The median for states in 2025 was 0.29 percent, reflecting 290 out of every 100,000 adults.
  • The opportunity share of new entrepreneurs ranged from a low of 68.0 percent in Rhode Island to a high of 100.0 percent in South Dakota. The state median was 84.1 percent.
  • Startup early job creation ranged from a low of 3.3 jobs per 1,000 people in Alaska to a high of 9.1 jobs per 1,000 people in Washington, D.C. The state median was 4.8 jobs per 1,000 people.
  • The startup early survival rate ranged from a low of 67.1 percent in Washington, D.C., to a high of 82.5 percent in Washington state. The state median was 77.1 percent.
  • The overall KESE Index – an equally-weighted composite of the four indicators – ranged from -5.3 in Rhode Island to 7.0 in Florida, with a median of -0.1.
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