Statistics

Entrepreneurship Statistics (2026)

Updated · Team Fonda

Short answer

Americans filed 501,609 business applications in October 2026, according to the US Census Bureau, and 18.5% of US adults were starting or running a new business in the 2025 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows 78.9% of new establishments survive their first year and 34.2% are still open after ten.

Key takeaways

  • Starting is common: 501,609 business applications were filed in the US in October 2026 alone, but the Census Bureau projects that only a small share become employers within a year.
  • Most US businesses have no employees: 30.4 million of 36.4 million in 2023.
  • Survival falls steadily, not suddenly: 78.9% after one year, 47.2% after five, 34.2% after ten in the latest BLS data.
  • Founders mostly use their own money: 55% of US entrepreneurs rely on personal savings.

How many people are starting businesses?

Three sources count this in three different ways. The Census Bureau counts applications for a federal tax ID, the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts new workplaces that hire staff, and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys adults about what they are doing. Read together, they show that a lot of people take the first step and far fewer end up with a business that employs someone.

The gap between the first two numbers matters. An application is a form, not a business. It can be filed for a side project or a one-person firm that never hires, which is why the Census Bureau's own projection of new employers is so much smaller. The GEM figures tell a similar story from the other side: starting is near record levels in the US, while the share of adults who own a business that has lasted has roughly halved since 2019.

Who owns businesses in the United States?

The typical US business is one person working alone. The Census Bureau calls these nonemployer businesses. Firms with staff on payroll are the minority, and ownership looks different in the two groups.

Women own a much larger share of solo businesses than of firms with staff. There is more detail on that gap in women entrepreneur statistics, and more on firms of every size in small business statistics.

How long do new businesses survive?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics follows each year's new private sector establishments and reports how many are still open every March. The figures below are the latest reading, March 2026, for groups that opened one, three, five and ten years earlier. Each group is a different set of businesses, so this is a snapshot, not one group followed over time.

The popular line that 90% of startups fail is not what this data shows. About a fifth of new establishments close in their first year, and about a third are still operating a decade on. A closure is also not always a failure: the BLS counts a business as gone when it stops operating, whatever the reason. See startup failure statistics for the breakdown by cause.

How do founders pay for it?

Mostly with their own money. Paying for a business from savings and revenue is called bootstrapping, and the survey data says it is the normal case, not the exception. Outside financing is common among firms that already have employees, but less than half of those who apply get everything they ask for.

The last figure is here because it changes the cost side. In the GEM US survey, 67% of entrepreneurs said AI tools are important to their business model and strategy. If a tool can do work you would otherwise pay for, that matters most when the money is your own.

What this means if you are starting a business

  • Filing is not the hard part. Half a million applications in a single month shows that plenty of people get through the paperwork. What separates the businesses that last is whether customers pay, so validate the idea before you register anything.
  • Plan to fund it yourself at first. With most founders using savings, work out what you need before you spend. The startup cost calculator and the runway calculator do the arithmetic for free.
  • Aim at profit early. In the GEM closure data above, 23% of people closing a business cited a lack of profitability, about twice the share who cited financing. Test your price in real conversations, not only in a spreadsheet.
  • Think in years. The survival curve drops every year, not only in year one. Decide now what you need to have proven by month six and month twelve.
  • Starting alone is normal. Most US businesses have no employees. You do not need a team or investors to count as a founder.

If you want help with the testing step, Fonda guides you through market research and real customer interviews before giving a Verdict of go, refine or pivot, with reasons. It is free to start. The method is described in the research behind Fonda.

How to read these numbers

  • Business application: an application for a federal Employer Identification Number, after the Census Bureau filters out filings such as trusts and estates. It measures intent, not a trading business.
  • Establishment: a single place of business with employees. A firm can have several. BLS survival figures cover establishments, so solo businesses without staff are not in them.
  • Total Entrepreneurial Activity: the GEM survey measure of adults involved in early-stage entrepreneurship, meaning starting or running a new business. GEM counts a business as established once it is at least 3.5 years old.
  • Survey samples: the Small Business Credit Survey uses a convenience sample of 6,525 small employer firms, so treat its percentages as a strong indication, not a census.

Scope

Every figure on this page is for the United States except the GEM global fear of failure figure. All sources were opened and checked on 2026-11-13. The Census Bureau link always shows the newest monthly release, so it will move on from the October 2026 values quoted here. Monthly and quarterly series are revised by the agencies that publish them, so follow the links for the current values.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of Americans are entrepreneurs?

It depends on the definition. The GEM 2025-2026 US survey found 18.5% of adults were starting or running a new business and 5.5% owned an established one. The Census Bureau counted 36.4 million businesses in 2023, most of them with no employees.

How many new businesses are started each year in the US?

There is no single count. The Census Bureau publishes monthly business applications, which were 501,609 in October 2026, and the BLS publishes quarterly births of establishments with employees, which were 323,000 in the first quarter of 2026. The first measures paperwork and the second measures new workplaces with staff.

Is it true that most new businesses fail in the first year?

No. In the latest BLS data, 78.9% of establishments that opened in the year ended March 2025 were still open in March 2026. The harder stretch is the following years: fewer than half of the 2021 group were open five years later.

Do you need outside funding to start a business?

Most founders do not start with it. In the GEM US survey, 55% of entrepreneurs relied on personal savings, and about half of nonemployer firms in the Federal Reserve survey had no debt. Among small firms with employees, 60% applied for financing in the year before that survey.

Where do entrepreneurship statistics come from?

The main US sources are government agencies and Federal Reserve Banks: the Census Bureau for applications and ownership, the Bureau of Labor Statistics for births and survival, and the Small Business Credit Survey for financing. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor adds a yearly survey of adults that can be compared across countries.

Sources

  1. US Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics, October 2026 release
  2. US Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics definitions
  3. US Census Bureau, business owner characteristics press release (2024 Annual Business Survey and 2023 NES-D)
  4. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, first quarter 2026
  5. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 7: Survival of private sector establishments by opening year
  6. Babson College, GEM 2025-2026 United States Report summary
  7. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2025/2026 Global Report
  8. Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, 2026 Report on Employer Firms
  9. Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey, 2026 Report on Nonemployer Firms

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