The Nashville Business Journal reports that Hispanic businesses grew in number from 1997 to 2002 at a rate slower than black-owned businesses but four times as fast as white-owned businesses.

"Black-owned businesses soared 45 percent to 1.2 million and Hispanic-owned businesses jumped 31 percent to 1.6 million. By contrast, the number of white-owned businesses increased by only 8 percent."

"The business landscape is still dominated by whites, however. Nearly 20 million of the nation's 23 million businesses were white-owned in 2002, according to the Census Bureau. White-owned businesses accounted for 4.7 million out of the 5.5 million firms with paid employees. (These numbers -- and the black numbers -- include some Hispanics.)"

"Receipts, for example, averaged $77,426 for black businesses, $143,866 for Hispanic businesses and $417,395 for white businesses."

Access to capital is one of the factors affecting growth, according to Small Business Administration Administrator Hector Barreto.

"Loans to minorities are up 27 percent this year compared with the same time a year ago, he notes."

Labels: business, statistics