Numbers and Characteristics

• There are 522,969 Asian women-owned businesses1 in the United States. This reflects a tremendous 54% increase in number since 2002 and a 115.9% increase since 1997. In comparison, Asian men-owned businesses grew 62.3% from 1997 to 2007.
• Asian women-owned firms across the country have total receipts of $87.7 billion. The total receipts of Asian women-owned firms grew 63.4% since 2002.
• Women-owned firms make up 33.7% of all Asian nonfarm businesses across the country.
• A full 82.5% of these firms are non-employer firms, with average receipts of $34,204.
• The remaining 17.5% of the firms have paid employees, employing a total of 561,031 people across the country with a payroll of $14.9 billion. These employer firms have average receipts of $794,657.

Geography

• Just 6.7% of all women-owned firms across the country are owned by Asian women.
• The West has the highest representation (12.5%) followed by the Northeast (7.1%), the South (4.6%) and the Midwest (3.1%).
• The states with the largest number of Asian women-owned businesses are: California (175,493), New York (58,134), and Texas (39,632).

Industry

• The top industries for Asian women include: other services (25.5% of all Asian WOBs are in this sector), health care and social assistance (13.9%), and professional, scientific, and technical services (13.3%).
• Industries least represented by Asian WOBs include management of companies and enterprises (.01%), mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (.05%), and agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (.15%).