California is home to the third largest number of minority-owned businesses nationwide at 278,770. The total minority (non-white) population in California is 9,796,587. Photo courtesy of Pixabay

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - New research has revealed the states with the highest rate of minority-owned businesses in America. California ranks 3rd nationally for the rate of minority-owned businesses per minority resident.

The state averages 28.46 minority-owned companies for every 1,000 minority residents. California is home to the largest total number of minority-owned businesses nationwide, at 278,770. The total minority (non-white) population in California is 9,796,587.

Work management experts Asana analyzed data from the 2021 U.S. Census on businesses owned by members of racial minority groups. These figures were compared with non-white population data to reveal which states had the highest rate of minority-owned businesses per 1,000 minority residents. 

The composition of minority-owned businesses in California is dominated by one group: Asian-owned businesses are responsible for 169,863 firms, over 60 percent of the total. There are 15,014 Black or African American-owned firms in California and 9,595 American Indian or Alaska Native-owned firms.

A spokesperson from Asana commented on the study, “The West appears to be the best region for minority-owned businesses, with seven of the 10 states with the highest rates located there.   

“Minority business owners in America can receive support from several avenues to help give their ventures a better chance of success. Support includes government grants, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) grants, financial consultations, and the National Minority Supplier Development Council's Business Consortium Fund.” 

The number of businesses owned by members of racial minorities was gathered from the 2021 U.S. Census by state.  

This was then compared with the non-white population per state (from the 2020 US Census) to give the number of minority-owned businesses per 1K minority population per state.  

This was ranked from highest to lowest. The number of businesses owned by each race per state was also included and ranked per state, giving which race owns the most businesses per state. 

Race populations are calculated as the total number of people who identify with that race. This includes multiracial people. This also means that the non-white population was calculated by subtracting the white population from the total population. Due to this, the sum of all races for a state will most likely be greater than the state's minority population due to multiracial people appearing in the separate population counts of multiple races.

Some values for a number of businesses owned by race per state were missing and thus estimates were used to fill the gaps using the following method. The average number of race-owned businesses per 1K race population was calculated per race. This was used in combination with each state's and race's population to calculate an estimated number of businesses owned by race per state. 

To learn more about Asana visit: https://asana.com/uses/resource-planning.