Austin Metro Area Among Best For Women Entrepreneurs: Report

AUSTIN, TX — The Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown region cracked the top half of a list of the nation's best places for women entrepreneurs, according to a new study.

Researchers at SmartAsset sought to find the best places for female entrepreneurship amid innate challenges in the field. Women have made great strides in the business world, yet there remains a significant gender gap as it relates to entrepreneurship. Here's a sobering stat: The rate of working-age women who become new entrepreneurs worldwide is roughly three quarters that of men.

Notwithstanding the hurdles, some parts of the U.S. are more conducive to businesswomen's success than others. One of those places is the Austin metro area, according to rankings assigned by SmartAsset following its research. To achieve rankings for its second annual study on the topic, SmartAsset researchers analyzed data on 50 of the largest U.S. metro areas to find the best places for women entrepreneurs.

This year, analysts considered two additional timely metrics to account for the impact of COVID-19: The September 2020 unemployment rate and the number of new business applications in 2020 relative to the previous five years.

The Austin metro area fared well in the reckoning, ranking 14th in a list of the top 25 regions for women entrepreneurs. The percent of women-owned businesses in the region was found to be 21.80 percent, while the segment as a percent of large business was placed at 2.71 percent. The ration between women- and men-owned enterprises was found to be 72.76 percent. The September unemployment rate was 6.4 percent.

The upshot: The Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown region secured an overall index score of 68.30 on a 100-point scale.

Image provided by SmartAsset.

While the Austin metro area fared well, it was bested by the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metroplex with an aggregate score of 75.26 to place it in the 10th position. But the local region scored higher than the San Antonio-New Braunfels region landing in the 18th slot with an overall score of 65.21. No other areas of Texas made the top 25 list.

For more details, read the SmartAsset report titled Best Places for Women Entrepreneurs – 2020 Edition.