Is Small Business Activity on the Rise in North Carolina?

Date: January 05, 2016 Last Edit: January 07, 2016

North Carolina small businesses made a comeback in 2015, according to a recent report from the Kauffman Foundation.

Main Street businesses—in North Carolina and nationwide—made a comeback in 2015, according to a recent report from the Kauffman Foundation.

The 2015 Kauffman Main Street Entrepreneurship Index analyzed small business activity in two ways: the percentage of business owners in the overall population and the ratio of established small businesses divided by an area’s total population. And in all but one state, as well as 38 of the 40 largest metropolitan areas, the Kauffman Index found small business activity to be on the rise in 2015.

North Carolina ranked 24th in startup activity and 19th in main street entrepreneurship (established businesses) among larger states. Of the total state population, 5.83 percent own a business as their main job, and there are 919.9 established small businesses—companies older than five years employing fewer than 50 people—per 100,000 residents.

Charlotte, however, was one of only two metro areas that experienced a decline in small business activity in 2015. It ranked 25th for startup activity and 30th for established business activity.

“Following a post-recession downward and stagnant trend in small business activity, we’re now seeing Main Street Entrepreneurship begin to rise,” E.J. Reedy, director of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation, says in the report’s news release. “This obviously is good news given that these small businesses make up 63 percent of all employer firms nationally.”

To view the full report, visit http://www.kauffman.org/microsites/kauffman-index.

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