Statistics

Women Entrepreneur Statistics (2026)

Updated · Team Fonda

Short answer

Women owned 14.2 million US businesses with $2.8 trillion in receipts, according to US Census Bureau data released in November 2025. Most are run solo: women owned 42.3% of businesses without employees but 22.9% of businesses with employees. In 2025, 0.28% of US women became new entrepreneurs in a given month, against 0.44% of men (Kauffman Indicators).

Key takeaways

  • Women owned 14.2 million US businesses with $2.8 trillion in receipts (US Census Bureau, reference year 2023).
  • Women owned 42.3% of US businesses without employees but 22.9% of businesses with employees.
  • 0.28% of US women became new entrepreneurs in a given month in 2025, up from 0.23% in 2019 (Kauffman Indicators).
  • 49% of women-owned small employer firms that applied for a loan, line of credit or cash advance were approved, against 52% of men-owned firms (Federal Reserve Banks).
  • US companies founded solely by women raised 1.1% of venture capital dollars in 2025 (PitchBook, reported by WLRN).

How many businesses do women own in the US?

The most complete count comes from the US Census Bureau, which combines its survey of businesses with employees and tax records for businesses without them. Both sets of figures are for 2023 and were released in November 2025. The pattern is clear: women own a large share of one-person businesses and a much smaller share of businesses with a payroll. A business with no employees is often a sole proprietorship or a freelance practice.

Put the last two figures next to the totals and you see where the money sits. Roughly nine in ten women-owned businesses have no employees, yet those businesses bring in a small part of the $2.8 trillion. Most of the receipts come from the 1.4 million firms that hire.

How often do women start businesses?

Two long-running studies measure this. The Kauffman Indicators use US government survey data to count the share of adults who become new business owners in a given month. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) surveys adults in 51 countries. Both find that women start businesses less often than men. In the US, Kauffman finds the rate for women is above its level before the pandemic. Across countries the picture is mixed: GEM found women's startup rates up in fewer than half of the countries it could compare. For the wider picture, see entrepreneurship statistics.

The Kauffman report describes the gap between women and men as persistent over 30 years. It also reports that the opportunity share of new entrepreneurs is higher for women than for men. The opportunity share is the percentage of new entrepreneurs who started out of choice instead of necessity. The report states this without giving a figure in the text, so we do not give one either.

Do women-owned businesses get loans as often as men-owned ones?

The Federal Reserve Banks' Small Business Credit Survey splits its 2025 results by the gender of the owners. It covers US firms with at least one employee besides the owners and fewer than 500 in total, surveyed from September to November 2025. Women-owned firms applied for financing about as often as men-owned firms and were approved at a slightly lower rate. The larger differences are in size, profit, and who decides not to apply at all. An MCA is a merchant cash advance, a lump sum repaid from future sales.

Women owners who held back from applying were twice as likely as men to say they expected a no. Among those who did apply, about half were approved, close to the rate for men-owned firms. The survey does not say what would have happened to the owners who never applied.

How much venture capital goes to women founders?

Venture capital is money from investment funds that buy a share of young companies they expect to grow very fast. PitchBook tracks how much of it goes to US companies with women founders. Its report on 2025 was not open to us, so the figures below are taken from coverage by WLRN and Fortune, which quote it. The headline is a record year, but the definition matters. "Female-founded" means at least one woman on the founding team, which includes mixed teams.

The record total was driven by a few very large rounds. Fortune reports that two-thirds of the dollars going to female-founded startups in 2025 went into AI companies. WLRN notes that with Scale AI and Anthropic left out, female-founded companies raised about 13% more than the year before. The share of deals fell slightly while the share of dollars rose, which tells you the money was concentrated. For all-women teams, the dollar share went down. More context is on our startup funding statistics page.

What this means if you are starting a business

  • You are in large company. Women own more than four in ten US businesses without employees. Starting alone and small is the usual route, and many one-person business ideas need little money to begin.
  • Do not count on venture capital. It reaches a small number of companies, and all-women teams received about a hundredth of the dollars in 2025. The usual alternative is to fund the business from your own savings and its sales, which is called bootstrapping.
  • If you need a loan, apply. Among firms that applied, 49% of women-owned and 52% of men-owned were approved, but women-owned firms that did not apply were twice as likely to say they expected to be turned down. Work out what you need with the startup cost calculator before you ask.
  • Watch profit, not only sales. A larger share of women-owned employer firms reported running at a loss. Use the break-even calculator to find the sales you need to cover your costs, and set prices to match.
  • Plan around the rest of your life. GEM found women were 47% more likely than men to close a business for family or personal reasons. Pick a business model and working hours you can keep up, and test the idea on the side first if you can.

Whatever you choose, lower the risk before you spend by validating the idea with real customers. Fonda is an AI co-founder that guides you through market research, key risks and customer interviews, then gives a go, refine or pivot Verdict with reasons. It is free to start.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of US businesses are owned by women?

It depends on which businesses you count. In Census Bureau data for 2023, women owned 42.3% of businesses without employees and 22.9% of businesses with employees. Taken together, women owned 14.2 million businesses.

Is it true that women founders get only 2% of venture capital?

That figure refers to companies founded only by women, and it moves from year to year. PitchBook data reported by WLRN puts it at 2.1% of US venture dollars in 2024 and 1.1% in 2025. Companies with at least one woman founder, including mixed teams, raised 27.7% of the dollars in 2025.

Why do different reports give different numbers of women-owned businesses?

They use different methods. The Census Bureau counts from surveys and tax records and publishes about two years after the reference year. Some private reports project those figures forward to the current year, so their totals are estimates. Check whether a number is a count or a projection before you quote it.

Are women-owned businesses less likely to survive?

We did not find a current primary source that compares survival rates by the owner's gender, so we do not give a figure. What GEM does report is a difference in the reason for closing: women were 47% more likely than men to close a business for family or personal reasons.

Do these statistics cover countries outside the US?

Only the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor figures do. They come from a survey of adults in 51 countries. The Census Bureau, Kauffman, Federal Reserve and PitchBook figures on this page are for the United States.

Sources

  1. US Census Bureau, Census Bureau Releases New Data About Characteristics of Employer and Nonemployer Business Owners (November 20, 2025)
  2. Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship, National Report on Early-Stage Entrepreneurship in the United States: 2025 (May 2026), full report PDF
  3. Kauffman Indicators of Entrepreneurship, 2025 national report summary page
  4. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM 2024/2025 Women's Entrepreneurship Report: Navigating Challenges, Driving Change
  5. Federal Reserve Banks, 2026 Firms in Focus: Chartbook on Firms by Gender of Ownership (2025 Small Business Credit Survey)
  6. WLRN, Female funding sets record nationally, but there's more to this story (March 9, 2026), reporting PitchBook data
  7. Fortune, coverage of PitchBook's US All In: Female Founders in the VC Ecosystem report (March 6, 2026)

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