The 2015 Kauffman Index data was recently released and Tech.co published the results here. The Kauffman Index is an annual look at startup activity across US cities and states by the entrepreneurship-focused Kauffman Foundation.
In her piece, Tech.co’s Kira M. Newman outlines how Kauffman defines various terms mentioned in the report:
- Startup: A business than is younger than one year old.
- Entrepreneur: Anyone who owns their own business, whether they have employees or not, and works on it for at least 15 hours a week.
- Rate of new entrepreneurs: The number of people who change from a different job (or no job) to owning their own business, per 100,000 adults per month.
Opportunity share: The percentage of new entrepreneurs not coming out of unemployment, which suggests that they are motivated by a market opportunity rather than economic necessity. San Jose has a high 91.2% opportunity share, while Atlanta is the lowest in the top 15 with 69%. - Density: The number of startups per 100,000 people. Miami has the highest density, with almost 250. The average startup density of the United States is 130.6.
“This ranking was based on the most recent data from the Current Population Survey and the US Census Bureau – in this case, yearly data for 2012 (startup density) and moving averages for 2014 (rate and opportunity share),” Newman writes.
Las Vegas data:
- Rate of new entrepreneurs: 380
- Opportunity share of entrepreneurs: 72.7%
- Startup density: 158.3
Take a look at the complete city listings here.