📺 Stream EntrepreneurTV for Free 📺

U.S. Entrepreneurship Climbs to Highest Level in More Than a Decade (Infographic) More than one in 10 Americans were developing their own business in 2012, according to the U.S. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor released today. Here's a look at the demographics of the community.

By Catherine Clifford

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

iiwiki.com

The U.S. was founded on principles that anyone with a good idea and a willingness to work hard has a shot at success. That optimism about the potential of entrepreneurship is very much alive.

The percentage of U.S. adults in the nascent stages of entrepreneurship, either in the process of starting a business or a new business owner, reached almost 13 percent in 2012, up slightly from 12.3 percent the previous year, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor U.S. Report released today from Babson College and Baruch College. That is the highest level of entrepreneurship the U.S. has seen since 1999 when the rate was 8.4 percent and GEM first started producing the studies.

Related: U.S. Small Businesses Expect Improved Sales Prospects (Infographic)

Of the U.S. adults who are working on launching their own business or are running their young business, men outnumber women in a 10 to seven ratio, the report finds. First-generation immigrants are more likely than their nonimmigrant peers to become an entrepreneur. What's more, entrepreneurship rates across age categories, when adjusted to take into account the percentage of each age group that is active in the labor market, were relatively similar, the report found.

Below is an infographic prepared by the GEM in connection with the release of the U.S. report summarizing the diverse demographics of U.S. entrepreneurs, along with highlights about how U.S. entrepreneurs are working and the struggles they face.

What does the entrepreneurship community look like in your local region? Leave a note below and let us know.

Entrepreneurship in the U.S. Reaches Highest Level in More Than a Decade
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Side Hustle

He Started a Luxury Side Hustle at Age 13 — Now the Business Earns More Than $10 Million a Year: 'People Want to Help You When You're Young'

Michael Morgan, now the owner of Iconic Watch Company, always had a passion for "old things" — and he turned it into a lucrative venture.

Thought Leaders

It's the End of the Entrepreneurial Era As We Know It

With the rise of advanced technologies and AI, are we losing all sense of the independent business person and entrepreneur?

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Health & Wellness

This 103-Year-Old Doctor Opened Her Medical Practice Before Women Could Have Bank Accounts — Here Are Her 6 Secrets to a Healthy, Successful Life

Dr. Gladys McGarey started medical school in 1941 and helped pioneer the holistic medicine movement in the U.S.