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The Top 10 U.S. Cities For Women-Owned Businesses

What are the business cities for female entrepreneurs?
Visual Capitalist creates and curates enriched visual content focused on emerging trends in business and investing. Founded in 2011 in Vancouver, the team at Visual Capitalist believes that art, data, and storytelling can be combined in a manner that makes complex issues and processes more digestible. Covering high-growth opportunities and industries such as technology, mining, and energy, Visual Capitalist reaches millions of investors each year. Visual Capitalist’s infographics have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Zero Hedge, Maclean’s, Gizmodo, The Vancouver Sun, and Business Insider.
Visual Capitalist creates and curates enriched visual content focused on emerging trends in business and investing. Founded in 2011 in Vancouver, the team at Visual Capitalist believes that art, data, and storytelling can be combined in a manner that makes complex issues and processes more digestible. Covering high-growth opportunities and industries such as technology, mining, and energy, Visual Capitalist reaches millions of investors each year. Visual Capitalist’s infographics have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Zero Hedge, Maclean’s, Gizmodo, The Vancouver Sun, and Business Insider.

The Top 10 Cities For Women-Owned Businesses

Women are conquering the business world at a rapid pace, especially in areas such as small business and entrepreneurship.

The proof? In the last decade, the number of women-owned firms nationwide has grown by over 3.5 million, now representing 38% of all businesses in the United States.

Today’s map from HowMuch.net shows the top American cities where business is booming for women entrepreneurs.

Where are Women Businesses Growing the Fastest?

Looking at the percentage growth in women-owned businesses tells us a lot about the way local economies have developed in the past decade.

Though women-owned firms in larger cities may have more absolute growth and revenue, a high growth rate shows the rapid emergence of a business community where there may have not been one before.

Memphis’ women are leading the charge in the development of their city’s relatively small economy. Though the city is ranked only 45th in terms of revenue generation by women-owned firms, it’s adding new women-owned businesses at a very rapid pace.

The growth rate in Memphis of 122.2% between 2007-2016 leads the nation, making it one of only three cities (along with Charlotte and Detroit) where women-led business growth has more than doubled since 2007.

Absolute Growth Numbers

More metropolitan cities like New York or Los Angeles already have a bigger base of women entrepreneurs to start with, so their percentage growth is not high enough to show up on the aforementioned map.

However, it is worth looking at where the most women-owned businesses are being added (in absolute terms) as well:

Interestingly enough, certain cities appear on both lists, showing impressive growth both in relative and absolute terms.

Detroit and Miami are fairly unique in that they make the top five on both lists. Detroit grew its women-owned businesses by 121.4%, or 140,000 in absolute terms. Meanwhile, Miami grew at 94.7% to add 220,000 businesses since 2007.

Houston and Atlanta are two other cities that fare very well on both lists.

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