Entrepreneurs are Getting Started in Austin, Recent Kauffman Index Reveals

Across the U.S., there’s been an increase in business startup activity since last year. Many of the nation’s top 40 metro areas also saw increased new venture activity. The news is according to the Kauffman index: Startup Activity, which was released on Saturday. Per the index, Austin not only topped the index of startup activity, but also ruled the list of metro areas with most new entrepreneurs.

All cities that made the top 10 with the most startup activity in the 2014 index stayed in the top 10 for 2015, according to the report. Those cities included the following, in this order: Austin, Texas; Miami, Fla.; San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Denver; San Francisco; New York; Houston; San Diego; and San Antonio, Texas.

Continuing its impressive entrepreneurial dominance, Austin also made the top spot on the list that ranks the rate of new entrepreneurs, which is one of the components of the Kauffman Index. Although it varied widely across metropolitan areas - from 0.55 percent to 0.13 percent - Austin, Texas, came out on top, at 0.55 percent rate of new entrepreneurs, or 550 new entrepreneurs per month on average. Austin was followed by Miami at 0.52 percent and San Jose, Calif., at 0.41 percent.

Arnobio Morelix, research analyst at the Kauffman Foundation and one of the studies’ authors, said that “entrepreneurship is closely associated with economic growth, so it should not be surprising that some of the states seeing increased levels of startup activity have experienced high rates of real GDP expansion in recent years.”

The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship is the first and largest index tracking entrepreneurship across city, state and national levels for the United States, and also presents demographic characteristics of the business owners. The Kauffman Index: Startup Activity is the first of three reports to be released under the umbrella of the new Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship. Future topics include “main street” businesses and growth ventures. The 2015 data allow for an update to annual reports dating back to 1996. Interactive data spanning all 18 years is available at www.kauffmanindex.org.