According to a recent report commissioned by American Express OPEN, there are approximately 8.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States in 2013. The report, aptly named 2013 State of Women-Owned Business Report: A Summary of Important Trends, 1997-2013, also revealed that these same businesses are generating over $1.3 trillion in revenue and employ almost 7.8 million people.

President of American Express OPEN Susan Sobbott said, “The report underlines the important role women-owned firms have played throughout the economic recovery. Women-owned businesses have been net job creators since 2007, a distinction shared by only large, publicly traded companies.”

What’s even more astonishing is that the growth in number, revenue, and employment of women-owned businesses far exceeds the growth of all other businesses excluding only the largest, publicly traded corporations in the country – and has for the past 16 years.

Phenomenal Growth for Businesses Owned by Women of Color

This year’s report also took a look at the number of women of color who own businesses. The results were astounding in that the growth in number of minority women-owned businesses in the past 16 years was over 100 percent topping the growth in number of non-minority women-owned businesses. In fact, the number of businesses owned by women of color makes up 31 percent of all women-owned businesses. By contrast, in 1997, businesses owned by women of color represented only 17 percent of all women-owned businesses.

Other significant findings of the report included:

  • The District of Columbia, North Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming and Georgia show the strongest growth in number, employment, and revenue of women-owned businesses.
  • San Antonio, Texas; Houston, Texas; Portland, Oregon; Riverside, CA; and Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia are the fastest growing metropolitan areas for women-owned businesses.
  • Between 2007 and 2013, 5.3 million jobs across the U.S. economy are attributed to employment at large public companies and women-owned businesses.
  • The industries with the highest concentration of women-owned businesses are health care and social assistance. The industries with the lowest number of women-owned businesses are construction, transportation and warehousing, and finance and insurance.

For more detailed information, read the full report.

References

“New OPEN Report Shows Phenomenal Growth of Women-Owned Businesses”. Openforum.com. 4/4/2013.

“Women-Owned Businesses are Second Only to Publicly-Traded Firms in Job Creation Since the Great Recession”. Americanexpress.com. 4/4/2013.