The Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis metropolitan area ranks 31st in entrepreneurial business growth among the 40 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to the latest report from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
That’s down from 2015, when the Milwaukee area ranked 21st on the annual Kauffman Index of Growth Entrepreneurship.
The metro area’s startup growth rate, measured by total employment growth five years after founding, is 52.7 percent. Its high-growth company density, measured as the number of private businesses with annual revenue of at least $2 million reaching three years of 20 percent annual revenue growth normalized by total business population, is 48.0.
Top among large metropolitan areas again in 2016 is Washington-Arlington-Alexandria around Washington, D.C. It has a 116.9 percent rate of startup growth and a high-growth company density of 271.5.
On the state level, Wisconsin ranks 23rd in entrepreneurial business growth among the 25 largest U.S. states. That’s also down from last year, when Wisconsin ranked 20th on the Index.
Wisconsin’s rate of startup growth is 53.5 percent and its high-growth company density is 37.9.
Nationally, the Index shows the largest annual increase in entrepreneurial activity in the past 10 years. Virginia topped the state rankings for a second year, with a startup growth rate of 81 percent and a high-growth company density of 175.0.
