Newsroom: Entrepreneurship Facts

• Fewer than two in 10 Americans give entrepreneurial companies credit for growth in the economy.

• In a national poll, only 25 percent of respondents said policy makers adequately consider the effect of their decisions in promoting entrepreneurial companies.*

• While fast-growth companies account for only six percent of the six million U.S. employers, they were responsible for about two-thirds of new jobs created between 1993 and 1996.

• A recent survey found states appropriated less than one percent of total state funding for programs specifically devoted to entrepreneurial development.** 

• Three states (California, Massachusetts, and Texas) in 1998 received more than 60 percent of all venture capital investments. Six states saw no venture capital investments.

• Entrepreneurs have been responsible for 67 percent of the inventions and 95 percent of the radical innovations made since World War II.

• Since 1980, Fortune 500 companies have lost five million jobs, while the United States as a whole has added 34 million new jobs.

• The Internet began life as ARPANET, a Defense Department computer network designed to link researchers and contractors.

• Many of America’s leading firms, including Intel and Federal Express, depended on Small Business Administration funding when they were getting started.

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  *Source: poll based on random telephone interviews of 1,022 adults nationwide conducted by Frederick Schneiders Research, Oct. 15-19, 1999.
  
  **Source: NCOE poll conducted by Frederick Schneiders Research/*National Association of State Development Agencies survey, 1998.

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Media contact:

Mark Marich

mark@pfidc.org

202-467-2776