Newly released U.S. Census Bureau figures show the number of businesses operating in Baton Rouge expanded by 4.9% over the five-year period that ended in 2012. As Governing reports, the data show the Baton Rouge area added 1,219 total businesses between 2007 and 2012, with a total of 25,952 businesses in operation as of 2012.
The data come from an update of the Survey of Business Owners. Across the U.S., more than half a million new businesses were established in the five years through 2012, marking 2% growth from 27.1 million businesses in 2007 to 27.6 million in 2012. New Orleans led the nation in business growth over the span, with a 52.8% expansion to 41,506 businesses as of 2012.
“Interestingly, much of the growth stems from new minority-owned firms, the vast majority of which are self-employed individuals operating unincorporated businesses,” Governing reports of the national increase. “The number of black-owned firms grew about 34%, while Asian-owned firms climbed 24% from 2007 levels, according to national Census estimates. An even larger increase—46%—was recorded for Hispanic firms.”
In addition, the number of businesses owned by women climbed 27% to nearly 10 million in 2012. For non-Hispanic whites, the 2012 estimates suggest a loss of 1.1 million firms nationally, or a decline of 6%.
“This is most likely due to a survey methodology change, however,” Governing notes. “In the 2007 survey, respondents writing in Hispanic or Latino ethnicity in the race write-in boxes were categorized as ‘white.’ In the latest survey, the Census Bureau treated these responses as ‘some other race.’ As a result, the total number of firms for the ‘some other race’ category jumped from 80,777 in 2007 to 1,174,340 in 2012.
While most municipalities added businesses over the five-year span, Governing notes small firms with no employees account for much of the growth—and the national tally of firms with paid employees actually dropped by 5%.
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