WASHINGTON – Today, Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice in President Biden’s Cabinet for America’s more than 33 million small businesses, celebrated new Census data showing a record-breaking 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2023 alone, making it the strongest year of new business applications on record and the third consecutive year of historic small business growth. Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the United States has experienced the first, second, and third strongest years of new business application rates on record.
“More Americans than ever are pursuing their dreams of business ownership as the rate of new business applications filed and establishments under President Biden continues to surge,” said Administrator Guzman. “In the last year alone, Americans across the country and in a wide range of industries filed a record five and a half million new business applications, bringing the total number under this Administration to a record-breaking 16 million. America’s great diversity continues to propel entrepreneurship with Black, Latino, and women founders starting up at higher rates than ever. As we enter 2024, the SBA will continue its work to increase access to the resources needed to start and grow resilient new businesses, harnessing the unique optimism and ingenuity of American entrepreneurs.”
Since President Biden took office, there have been 16 million new business applications — the highest recorded amount in three years. From 2021-2023, the U.S. has seen more new business applications than the prior four years combined. The monthly average of 440,000 new business applications during the first three years of the Biden-Harris Administration — is 46% higher than the average of the prior four years combined. The surge has featured outsized growth in entrepreneurship among women, Latinos and Black Americans.
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda has fueled this small business boom with historic federal investments — including the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Inflation Reduction Act. The SBA has helped ignite and sustain this boom by closing capital access gaps, increasing outreach to underserved entrepreneurs, and bolstering competition both domestically and abroad.
BACKGROUND: Three Years of the Biden Small Business Boom
Under the Biden-Harris Administration, Americans continue to file businesses at a record pace.
- Record business starts: 16 million new business applications have been recorded since the start of the Biden Administration – an 86% increase relative to the average pace of annual growth from when the survey began in 2004 until the start of the Biden Administration. It took just two years and 10 months for new business filings during the Biden Administration to surpass the level reached during the prior Administration.
- Record establishment growth: Department of Labor data reflects that Americans aren’t just applying to start businesses — they’re turning those applications into real business establishments:
- The number of private establishments has increased by 1.3 million since the start of the Biden Administration. The annual pace of establishment growth during the Biden Administration (5.4 %) is faster than at any point in the last quarter-century.
- 2.8 million private-sector establishments were born since the start of the Biden Administration. More establishments have been born per year during the Biden Administration (1.4 million per year) than at any point since the series began in 1993.
- Ongoing small business job growth: More small businesses mean more small business jobs. From 2021 through the first quarter of 2023, the U.S. economy added a net 7.2 million small business jobs, with each quarter showing net-positive small business job growth of more than 370,000.
Women and minority entrepreneurs have made an outsized contribution to new business creation.
- Black business ownership is growing at the fastest pace in 30 years, and the share of Black households owning a business has more than doubled, from 5% to 11% between 2019 and 2022.
- Latino business ownership is growing at the fastest pace in at least a decade, rising from 7% to 10% between 2019 and 2022.
- The number of women-owned businesses has grown dramatically. From 2019 to 2023, the growth rate of women-owned businesses was 94% greater than the growth of men-owned businesses.
