Who Are America’s Entrepreneurs Today [Video]

Part of the American dream is the whisper that maybe, just maybe, you could make it striking out alone. And for many Americans, the siren call of entrepreneurship is one that’s hard to resist.

But entrepreneurship isn’t always attainable for everybody and it has its own systemic barriers to entry. The tides, however, might be changing a bit. Today’s new entrepreneurs are coming from different backgrounds — and different parts of the country.

To be sure, many new businesses don’t survive in the long run. Of the more than 700,000 US private sector businesses formed in March 2018, about 52% were still operating five years later, in March 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Still, Americans are increasingly embracing entrepreneurship: According to an annual reportby Babson College published in August 2023, 19% of working-age US adults were in the process of starting a business or had done so over the prior three-and-a-half …