Entrepreneurship Data

Many of our limitations in understanding the complexities of entrepreneurship stem from a basic lack of data. The Kauffman Foundation is addressing short-term and long-term reform needs with a variety of research initiatives to expand datasets that can be used to study different aspects of entrepreneurship and with ongoing forums and thought leadership about systemic reforms needed. This page provides more information on datasets that are available to researchers; information for policymakers, press, and the public on commonly requested data; and insights from our associates and partners on entrepreneurship data.

Initiatives

  • The Business Dynamics Statistics is a data series that tracks the annual changes in employment for growing and shrinking businesses.

  • ERPN LogoThe Entrepreneurship Research and Policy Network (ERPN) is an online network sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation and the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).

  • KFS cover 2To fill a void in data collection on young businesses in the United States and catalyze new understandings of how various factors influence entrepreneurial outcomes, the Kauffman Foundation created the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS)—the largest longitudinal survey of new businesses in the world.

  • Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity thumbnailThe Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity is a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States.

  • The Kauffman Symposiums on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Data are a multi-year series of workshops focused on the important and growing body of data collected on entrepreneurship and innovation.

  • This Kauffman-funded initiative remedies one of the greatest impediments to rapid progress in the science of science and innovation policy—both as a field of study and as a guide to policy.

Highlights

Featured Resources

  • In the book, The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent, Vivek Wadhwa, a leading scholar and public voice on entrepreneurship and public policy, draws on fifty years of research and his new Kauffman Foundation report, "America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs – Then and Now," to show that growth in immigrant entrepreneurship in the United States has peaked, is stagnating, and is on the verge of decline.

  • Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity thumbnailThe Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity is a leading indicator of new business creation in the United States.

  • KFS Data Symposiums LogoThe 2008 Kauffman Data Symposium highlighted twenty-five presentations, now available for download, each with a different proposal for advancing our understanding of entrepreneurship and/or innovation.