Despite National Economic woes, Entrepreneurship Alive and Well in Oklahoma

Despite a struggling national economy, entrepreneurship continues to thrive in Oklahoma as the Kauffman Foundation reports Oklahoma had the highest entrepreneurial activity rate in the United States in 2009. Montana, Arizona, Texas and Idaho rounded out the top five, respectively.

The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity showed 470 new businesses were created for every 100,000 adults living in Oklahoma each month. This represents a 57-percent increase compared to 2008. The national average was 340 new businesses, a four-percent increase over the past year.

“These things don’t happen overnight,” Tom Walker, president and CEO of i2E Inc., said. “For nearly a decade this state, through the public and private sector, has been developing programs that have allowed innovation to flourish. In Oklahoma, entrepreneurship and innovation have been made a priority and that will continue.” i2E is a private, not-for-profit corporation that works to grow the technology-based entrepreneurial economy in Oklahoma.

Last year, Fortune Magazine named Oklahoma City the No. 1 large metro in the nation for starting a small business.

“Entrepreneurship is the backbone to any healthy economy or business climate,” Greater Oklahoma City Chamber President Roy Williams said. “Recruiting existing companies to your region is great but nothing can take the place of home-grown entrepreneurs and the investment they put back in their community.”

Capturing new business owners in their first month of significant business activity, the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity provides the earliest documentation of new-business development across the country. The percentage of the adult, non-business-owner population that starts a business each month is measured using data from the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS), conducted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. More data can be found at www.kauffman.org/kiea.

About the Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to grow economies and improve human welfare. Founded by late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman, the Foundation is based in Kansas City, Mo., and has approximately $2 billion in assets.