Women-owned firms grow in number and importance - statistics compiled by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners - Brief Article

Nation's Business, April, 1996 by Sharon Nelton

About 36 percent of U.S. companies, or more than 7.9 million firms, are owned by women, according to a new statistical portrait compiled by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, in Silver Spring, Md., outside Washington.

Women-owned businesses employ about one in four American workers, or more than 18.5 million people, and ring up more than $2.28 trillion in sales annually, says the report by the foundation, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on women's business issues.

The organization's analysis follows a report by the U.S. Bureau of the Census showing that in 1992, women owned 6.4 million firms, employed 13.2 million People, and generated $1.6 trillion in annual revenues. That report, issued in late January, is significant because it marks the first time that the Census Bureau has included regular C corporations--generally regarded as the fastest-growing and largest companies---in its survey.

Previously, only sole proprietorships, partnerships, and subchapter S corporations were included in Census surveys of women-owned firms, conducted every five years. According to the Census Bureau, the number of women-owned businesses, excluding C corporations, increased by 43 percent between 1987 and 1992, and their annual sales rose 131 percent, to $643 billion.

The Census Bureau's report for 1992 found that the country's nearly 520,000 C corporations produced $932 billion in revenues, nearly 60 percent of the total revenues for women-owned business. Women in 1992 owned 33 percent of U.S. businesses and 25.5 percent of C corporations.

The Census report also confirms earlier findings by the foundation. Impatient with the lack of data on women-owned companies, the foundation, starting in the early 1990s, began producing its own projections, which included C corporations. In 1992, the foundation estimated the number of women-owned businesses that year at 6.5 million--a difference of less than 2 percent from the Census Bureau report. The foundation's 1996 projections are based on the 1992 Census report and 1987 Census data.

The Leading States For Women Entrepreneurs

  Number Of
                              Owned Businesses