Startup activity in the United States rose in 2016 for the second consecutive year, according to the Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit based in Kansas City, Missouri, that focuses on education and entrepreneurship.
“After falling with the recession and reaching its lowest point in the last 20 years just two years ago, startup activity rebounded, going up for the second year in a row,” the foundation said in its “State of Entrepreneurship 2017” report, released in February. “The recovery of startup activity has been fueled by more people entering entrepreneurship out of opportunity rather than necessity.”
The proportion of new entrepreneurs starting businesses primarily because of opportunity rather than necessity — what the foundation calls the Opportunity Share of New Entrepreneurs — hit 84 percent in 2015, more than 10 percentage points higher than the opportunity share seen at the depths of the Great Recession.
However, the foundation noted, “While more people are becoming entrepreneurs, startup activity is still lower today than it was before the recession.”