WI Ranks Last in Startup Activity

by Taylor Kennedy

Kauffman FoundationWisconsin was ranked last for startup activity in 2016 in the recent Kauffman Index of Startup Activity Report, released today.

The report splits the 50 states into “large” and “small” categories, with Wisconsin coming in 25th in startup activity among the large states.

According to the report, the opportunity share of new entrepreneurs, which measures the percent of new entrepreneurs who were not unemployed before starting their businesses, dropped from 74.19 percent in 2015 to 66.39 percent last year. However, the rate of new entrepreneurs, which measures the percent of the adult population of an area that became entrepreneurs in a given month, is up slightly, from 0.19 percent in 2015 to 0.21 percent in 2016.

The state’s number of established small businesses per 1,000 firms also decreased, from 705.9 to 704.3.

Wisconsin received the same ranking last year.