Press Release
Women-Owned Businesses Continue to Grow in Top 50 Metropolitan Areas
Washington, DC – Women-owned businesses increasingly are driving the economic health of the top 50 metropolitan areas through job creation and generating revenues. In a report released today, the Center for Women’s Business Research shows that the number of women-owned businesses in the top 50 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) continues to grow faster than the economy in general. The 5.1 million privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms located in the top 50 MSAs employ 9.5 million people and generate $1.3 trillion in annual sales.
This report, entitled Women-Owned Businesses in 2004: Trends in the Top 50 Metropolitan Areas, is part of the Center’s biennial update on women-owned firms. In April, the Center released its most up-to-date numbers on women’s business ownership in the United States and 50 states. Wells Fargo continues its longstanding exclusive underwriting of the national, state, and metro areas biennial reports. The final piece of the 2004 biennial update, the numbers for women business owners of color, will be released in the fall.
“At a time when employment is critical to the growth of urban economies, women-owned businesses are having a vital impact. Between 1997 and 2004, the number of privately held, 50% or more women-owned businesses with employees in these metro areas grew by 30%, compared to a 10% growth rate for all firms with employees in these areas,” said Myra M. Hart, Chair, Center for Women’s Business Research and Professor, Harvard Business School.
“This research further confirms the tremendous impact women-owned businesses have on the U.S. economy,” said Joy Ott, Regional President for Wells Fargo in Montana and National Spokesperson for Wells Fargo’s Women’s Business Services Program. “It’s very encouraging to see women entrepreneurs in growing economic areas like Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Seattle taking risks and building successful businesses.”
In this fourth biennial update, the study reveals that – based on the number of firms, employment, and sales – the top ten MSAs are (in rank order): Los Angeles/Long Beach, CA; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Houston, TX; Phoenix/Mesa, AZ; Washington, DC/MD/VA/WV; Dallas, TX; Detroit, MI; Philadelphia, PA/NJ; and Atlanta, GA and Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, WA (tied).
The ten metropolitan areas with the fastest growth rates for 50% or more women-owned firms are (in rank order): Salt Lake City/Ogden, UT; Phoenix/Mesa, AZ; Las Vegas, NV/AZ; Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC; Charlotte/Gastonia/Rock Hill, NC/SC; Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, NC; Portland/Vancouver, OR/WA; Nashville, TN; Denver, CO; and Miami, FL and St. Louis, MO/IL (tied).
The top ten metropolitan areas estimated to have the greatest share of 50% or more women-owned firms are (in rank order): Portland/Vancouver, OR/WA (57.7%);Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, WA (56.8%); Phoenix/Mesa, AZ (54.7%); Las Vegas, NV/AZ (53.7%); St. Louis, MO/IL (52.6%); Sacramento, CA (52.5%); Kansas City, MO/KS (51.4%); Oakland, CA (51.3%); Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater, FL (50.5%); and San Diego, CA (50.3%).
The report focuses, for the first time ever, on three categories of privately-held, women owned businesses: those businesses which are equally (50/50) women- and men owned; those which are 51% or more women-owned; and the category that encompasses the first two categories, those which are 50% or more women-owned. These new categories allow for a more complete picture of the impact of women on business ownership throughout the country.
“This segmentation is important,” said Hart. “The number of 50% or more women owned firms is a major step in capturing the full impact of women’s business ownership.
However, it also is vital to have the profile of firms in which women are the majority owners (51% or more). The Center is committed to providing the most comprehensive data available on the state of women’s entrepreneurship.”
Majority ownership by a woman or women is necessary for third-party certification, which is used by corporations and governments to determine eligibility for their supplier diversity initiatives. The Center estimates that the 3.4 million majority (51% or more) women-owned firms in metropolitan areas employ 5.3 million people and generate $689 billion in sales. Between 1997 and 2004 these firms grew at more than five times the rate of all privately-held metropolitan area firms (51.7% vs. 10.0%).
The study is based on both published and unpublished data from the Financial Statistics Division of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and presents the most up-to-date information currently available on women-owned businesses in the 50 largest metropolitan areas of the United States.
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Methodology Estimates for privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms; privately-held, majority (51% or more) women-owned firms; privately-held, equally (50-50) women- and men-owned firms; and all privately-held firms in the top 50 Metropolitan Areas (MSAs) are derived from the Census Bureau’s “1997 Survey of Women-Owned Business Enterprises” (SWOBE). The top 50 MSAs are based on 1997 U.S. Census Bureau definitions and are based on overall population size.
The estimates are based on state-level growth rates from 1992–1997 that are partially derived using unpublished SWOBE data. (See Center for Women’s Business Research: Women-Owned Businesses in 2004: Trends in the U.S. and 50 States, April 2004, for more details). Estimates for both the equally (50-50) women- and men-owned firms and all privately-held firms are based on the growth rates of all privately-held firms and estimates for majority (51% or more) women owned firms are based on the growth rates for only those firms that are majority (51% or more) women-owned. Estimates and growth rates for the privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms are based on the combined majority women-owned and equally women- and men-owned firm data.
About the Center for Women’s Business Research Center for Women’s Business Research is the premier source of knowledge about women business owners and their enterprises worldwide. The Center’s mission is to unleash the economic potential of women entrepreneurs by conducting research, sharing information and increasing knowledge about this fast-growing sector of the economy.
Since 1989, the Center has generated research-based intelligence that has helped public- and private-sector leaders, advocates, and individual women business owners make informed strategic decisions for generating greater business opportunities.
About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $420 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers from more than 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and elsewhere internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only “Aaa”- rated bank in the United States.
Visit Wells Fargo at www.wellsfargo.com
Providing financial products and services to more than one million businesses with annual sales up to $20 million in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, Wells Fargo is the #1 lender to small businesses in the United States in total dollar volume according to 2002 CRA data.
The second largest national SBA lender in dollars, and third largest in loans, Wells Fargo is an SBA Preferred Lender in 28 states, and originated 3,181 loans for $473 million in 2003. Wells Fargo has also been ranked the number one SBA 504 lender nationally for the last two years. Speer & Associates rated Wells Fargo’s online services #1 for small business and for consumers (2003). Its targeted business services programs provide outreach and education to women, African American, Latino, and Asian business owners about financial services. Since 1995, Wells Fargo has loaned more than $20 billion to women and minority business owners.
Citation
Center for Women’s Business Research. “Women-Owned Businesses Continue to Grow in Top 50 Metropolitan Areas.” Press Release. September 20, 2004. Washington, DC.