Women-Owned Employer Firms Show Only Slight Growth

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs shows that the number of women-owned firms with paid employees increased by 3 percent in 2015 compared to 2014. In 2015, there were 1.1 million women-owned employer firms in the United States. Nearly one quarter of women-owned employer firms were owned by members of underrepresented minority groups.

The data also shows that the payroll for women-owned firms increased by 5.5 percent from 2014 to 2015. The payroll of all women-owned employer firms was $293.1 billion in 2015. These women-owned firms had total sales of $1.353 billion. This was up only slightly from 2014.

California led the nation in the number of women-owned employer firms. The New York City metropolitan area had the most women-owned employer firms among the nation’s 50 largest cities.