Released April 2021

2020 New Employer Business Indicators in the United States: National and State Trends

This report presents national and state trends in new employer businesses in the United States.

Report Highlights

• In 2020, the national rate of new employer business actualization was 9.41%, meaning that between 9 and 10 out of every 100 new business applications made a first payroll within eight quarters. This was down from 10.69% in 2019 and 11.09% in 2018.
• In 2019, the national rate of new employer businesses was 0.11, meaning there were about 110 new employer businesses for every 100,000 people. This was down from 0.12 in 2018.
• In 2016 (the most recent year for which data are available), the national new employer business velocity was 2.01, indicating that, on average, it took a little over six months between business application and first payroll. This was slightly longer than the national new employer business velocity in 2015 (1.98) and in 2014 (1.94).
• In 2018, national employer business newness was 7.01%, meaning that about 7 out of every 100 employer businesses were new businesses that made a first payroll within the first eight quarters. This was up from 6.65% in 2017 and 6.63% in 2016.
• In 2016 (the most recent year for which data are available), the national NEBAS Index was 0.70. This was down from 0.71 in 2015 and 0.73 in 2014.

Released March 2021

State Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship in the United States: 2020

This report presents state trends in early-stage entrepreneurship in the United States, including all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Report Highlights

• The rate of new entrepreneurs in 2020 ranged from a low of 0.16% in Rhode Island to a high of 0.53% in Florida. The median for states in 2020 was 0.31%, reflecting 310 out of every 100,000 adults.
• The opportunity share of new entrepreneurs ranged from a low of 66% in Massachusetts to 95.1% in North Dakota, with a median of 81.4%.
• Startup early job creation in the District of Columbia was 7.8 jobs per 1,000 people, compared with 2.9 jobs per 1,000 people in West Virginia, and a median of 4.5.
• Startup early survival rate ranged from 63.4% in Washington to 81.8% in California, with a median of 77.9%.

Released February 2021

National Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship in the United States: 2020

This report presents national trends in early-stage entrepreneurship in the United States, as well as trends for specific demographic groups as available.

The rate of new entrepreneurs was substantially higher in 2020 than in 2019 or in previous years, reflecting more transitions into entrepreneurial activity, broadly defined, among the population during pandemic conditions.

At the same time, the opportunity share of this activity plummeted to the lowest share in 25 years, indicating that many of these transitions were undertaken by people with few other options for economic engagement.

Report Highlights

• Nationally, the rate of new entrepreneurs in 2020 was 0.38%, meaning that an average of 380 out of every 100,000 adults became new entrepreneurs in a given month. The monthly rate increased substantially in 2020 as the economy went through the shutdowns, job losses, and reopenings that characterized the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The rate of new entrepreneurs was 0.30% among women and 0.48% among men, reflecting large increases for both from the previous year.
• The opportunity share of new entrepreneurs was 69.8% in 2020, representing a substantial drop from 2019 (86.9%). This opportunity share of new entrepreneurs is the lowest over the past 25 years and perhaps longer. The decline from 2019 to 2020 during the pandemic was 17.1 percentage points, much larger than the one-year decline of 6.9 percentage points from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession.
• The opportunity share of new entrepreneurs declined sharply for both women and men in 2020.