No slowing for start-ups

Entrepreneurs in the USA launched more small businesses in 2007 than the year before in the West, the Midwest and the South -- apparently not scared of the economic slowdown that began last year, according to a report released Thursday.

Regions and states with stronger economic and population growth last year saw an upsurge in entrepreneurs launching businesses, says Robert Fairlie, an economics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-author of an annual report on entrepreneurs by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The report found that the highest "entrepreneurial activity rates" were in the District of Columbia and nine states: Idaho, Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana, Wyoming, Vermont, Montana, Georgia and California.

The 10 states with the lowest activity were West Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Washington and Virginia.

The study, which analyzed data from the Census, the Labor Department and the IRS, also found ...