Wisconsin has 129,100 women-owned businesses today, which is up 44.6 percent from 89,284 women-owned firms in 1997, according to a new study by American Express OPEN.
The figure shows significant growth, but lags the national growth rate of 73.7 percent over that time period, putting Wisconsin at 40th in terms of growth in number of firms since 1997. There are 9.4 billion women-owned firms nationwide.
In Wisconsin, employment at women-owned firms has increased by 7.5 percent since 1997, now totaling about 157,400 jobs. And sales at the women-owned firms increased 58.1 percent, to $24.8 billion combined, ranking Wisconsin at 41st in growth of firm revenue from 1997 to today.
In terms of post-recession growth (from 2007 to 2015), Wisconsin is ranked eighth nationally, with 187 percent growth versus pre-recession (2002-2007).
This is the fifth year American Express OPEN has commissioned the State of Women-Owned Businesses Report. It analyzed the 1997, 2002 and 2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s quinquennial business census, the Survey of Business Owners.
