American Entrepreneurship Index
Americans are cautious of the entrepreneurial environment
The American Entrepreneurship Index is a first-ever national pulse check on the entrepreneurial environment, tracking a composite measure of how Americans perceive the opportunities and conditions that shape starting and growing new businesses in the United States. Despite entrepreneurship's central role in driving innovation, economic growth, higher incomes, and almost all net new job creation, there has never been a widely-recognized, national benchmark for measuring how Americans view the entrepreneurial environment.
46.2
/100
Americans express modest optimism that the potential rewards of entrepreneurship outweigh the risks.
Perceived Rewards vs. Risks — 53.50
Assessment of Current Conditions — 48.82
Views of current conditions are mixed.
Expectations for the future are similarly mixed.
Expectations for Future Conditions — 48.36
Ease of Starting a Business — 33.81
Key resources are seen as out of reach.
This first year of the Index raises a vital red flag for the nation.
Since new and young businesses create virtually all net job growth in America, predict future GDP growth, and correlate to higher incomes and community wealth, the Index is a tool to maximize the economic potential of entrepreneurship by highlighting ways to strengthen its entrepreneurial environment.
Methodology
The American Entrepreneurship Index draws upon a national survey recently conducted by Right to Start, the American Entrepreneurship Survey, dedicated to understanding how Americans view entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial conditions in a comprehensive way.
The American Entrepreneurship Index combines four equally weighted dimensions of public opinion: whether the opportunity is worth the risk, whether the environment is favorable, whether conditions are improving, and the extent to which starting a business is feasible.
The four components that constitute the Index come from this proprietary data. Each component is calculated using a standard approach to produce a score between 0 and 100 that summarizes the balance of positive, neutral, and negative responses, with 50 being the neutral midpoint.
By averaging the four component scores, a single number is generated that constitutes the inaugural 2026 American Entrepreneurship Index score: 46.12 out of 100.