Business Start-ups High in Mountain, Pacific States – Low in the South and Midwest. Montana with one of the highest rates of entrepreneurship. Washington State one of the lowest.

A state-by-state breakdown of entrepreneurial activity shows Vermont, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho as the states with the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity.

Immigrants far outpaced native-born Americans in entrepreneurial activity last year while African Americans were the only major ethnic or racial group to experience a year-to-year increase in the rate of entrepreneurship, according to a national assessment of entrepreneurial activity by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The rate of entrepreneurial activity for immigrants in 2005 was 0.35 percent compared to 0.28 percent for native-born Americans, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity http://www.kauffman.org/items.cfm?itemID=703 . In other words, approximately 350 out of 100,000 immigrants started a business per month in 2005 compared to 280 out of 100,000 native-born Americans. These rates represent approximately 85,000 immigrants creating new businesses per month and 379,000 native-born individuals creating new businesses per month.

While annual government statistics indicate that approximately ten percent of the U.S. workforce owns a business, the Kauffman Index illustrates the number of people starting new businesses each month. With 0.29 percent of the total adult population starting new businesses per month, there was an average of approximately 464,000 people creating new businesses each month in 2005. This rate represents a slight decline from the 470,000 people creating new businesses per month in 2004.

Full Story: http://kansascity.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?type_news=latest&newsid=77468

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Looking for a few good entrepreneurs

Venture capitalists will plow hundreds of millions of dollars into Washington state this year. But that influx of capital doesn’t necessarily translate into more entrepreneurs.

According to a report released today (PDF) by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Washington ranks near the bottom of the list when it comes to entrepreneurial activity with only 230 adults per 100,000 starting new businesses each month last year.

Blame it on eastern Washington? Not so fast. Seattle’s entrepreneurial activity also was at the bottom of the major cities studied, tied with Boston with just 190 adults per 100,000 forming new ventures.

That’s well below the national rate of .29 percent of adults striking out on their own.

Full Story: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/103692.asp