States with the Highest Rate of New Entrepreneurs

Did you know that U.S. states in the south produced more entrepreneurs than any other region in the country?

ClickUp used Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship data to find the 15 states with the highest rates of new entrepreneurship. Kauffman uses data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to analyze entrepreneurship across the country.

This analysis of Kauffman data ranks states by the rate of new business owners as a percentage of the state population. It includes incorporated and unincorporated companies, as well as those with and without employees.

Ties are broken by the number of jobs created per capita. Startup one-year survival rates are also included but aren’t factored into the ranking. The ranking illuminates the continuation of long-term trends observed in U.S. job creation.

Entrepreneurial culture has been expanding beyond the coastal meccas it used to be concentrated to and into Southern population centers for some time. And the layoffs and workplace disruptions that emerged with the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 only served as a shot in the arm to startup culture, boosting new business formation across the board, according to new business application data from the IRS.

Southern states—including Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas—have spent recent years vying for high-tech jobs through highly publicized incentive deals. Each state often landed among the final contenders for new manufacturing plants and headquarters relocations.

Electric vehicle startups, which had immense investor momentum in 2020 and 2021, are just one example. Amazon-backed EV maker Rivian is perhaps the most prolific recent instance of this jockeying back and forth by state officials armed with tax breaks, who are looking to draw more jobs and innovation.

Southern states are also among the fastest-growing regions for domestic migration from around the country, as Americans flock to places where their dollar goes farthest. Many of them, like Texas, are praised by companies and elected officials for unique tax codes that lend themselves to job creation.

It would appear, based on the most recent Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship data, that those very same states now boast significant concentrations of entrepreneurs building new companies.

Texas lands at 15th in this ranking. However, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Southwestern states (including Arizona and New Mexico) also place high. Continue reading to see if your state is among the most entrepreneurial in the country.

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15. Texas

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 5.2 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 81.9%

14. Missouri

Park and city view in Missouri — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 4.7 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 77.1%

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13. New Jersey

View of stores in New Jersey — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 5.9 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 79.9%

12. New York

Time Square in New York City — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 4.1 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 79.2%

11. Arizona

Mountain and city view in Arizona — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 4.7 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 81.7%

10. Wyoming

Mountain and city view in Wyoming — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 3.9 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 76.6%

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9. Maine

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 4.3 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 82.9%

8. Alaska

Mountains and city view in Alaska — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 3.6 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 80.3%

7. Colorado

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 6.1 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 81.9%

6. Vermont

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 2.5 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 78.5%

5. California

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 5.7 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 82.6%

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4. Oklahoma

Park and city view in Oklahoma — via Canva

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.4%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 5.7 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 82.3%

3. Georgia

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.5%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 5.7 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 79.8%

2. New Mexico

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.5%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 3.3 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 77.6%

1. Florida

Rate of new entrepreneurs: 0.6%
Jobs created by first-year startups: 6.5 per 1,000 residents
Startup one-year survival rate: 80.5%

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As you can see, entrepreneurship is truly booming across the United States and changing the way we live today. It’s exciting to watch business owners take their passions and turn them into inspiring success stories, and such accomplishments have completely transformed the meaning of success around the world.

Becoming an entrepreneur is more than simply having your own business. It’s also about fine-tuning a set of skills, building strategies, and creating principles that can open up new opportunities in any field. Entrepreneurship isn’t without its challenges, though—you’ll need a reliable tool to manage your work and business. With the help of a project management tool like ClickUp, entrepreneurs everywhere can access the tools they need to plan, track, and manage action items, projects, deadlines, and everything else they need to turn their bright ideas into a successful business.

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