Right to Start Announces the American Entrepreneurship Index
The Index Provides, for the First Time, a Means of Tracking Over Time How Americans View the Environment for Starting and Growing a Business
Kansas City, MO – September 17, 2026 – Right to Start, the national nonprofit organization championing entrepreneurship as a civic priority, announced today the American Entrepreneurship Index. It provides, for the first time, a means of tracking over time how Americans view the environment for starting and growing a business in the nation. It does so by following a composite measure of Americans’ perceptions of the opportunities and conditions that shape entrepreneurship.
Understanding entrepreneurship is vital, because new and young businesses create virtually all net job growth in America. In addition, every 1% increase in entrepreneurial activity in a state correlates with a 2% decline in poverty.
Historically, the health of the U.S. economy has been understood through other widely followed indicators. Inflation, for example, is tracked through the Consumer Price Index. Employment is monitored through the unemployment rate. Economic output is assessed through Gross Domestic Product. And consumer sentiment is tracked through measures such as the Consumer Confidence Index. These benchmarks, and others, have provided useful indicators of where the economy is today and where it may be headed.
Yet despite the central role of new and young businesses in driving innovation, economic growth, higher incomes, and almost all net new job creation, there has never been a widely recognized, equivalent tracking index for entrepreneurship. Now there is – the American Entrepreneurship Index – and it reveals that America has work to do.
The 2026 American Entrepreneurship Index score is 46.12 out of 100.
Drawing upon a national survey conducted by Right to Start, the overall Index score combines four equally weighted components of public opinion to provide this broad assessment. Those components reflect people’s perceptions of the following factors: 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. 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.
The Index gives each of the four components equal weight, reflecting the treatment of each dimension as an important element of the overall entrepreneurial outlook. Scores above 50 indicate net positive sentiment, while scores below 50 indicate net negative sentiment. The score for each of the four components follows:
53.50 – APPEAL: Perceived Rewards vs. Risks – Do the rewards of starting a business outweigh the risks?
48.82 – CONDITIONS: Current Environment – How good are conditions to start a business right now?
48.36 – EXPECTATIONS: Future Environment – Will conditions improve over the next six months?
33.81 – ACCESSIBILITY: Ease of Starting a Business – Is it easy to start a business today?
Scoring just below neutral, the 2026 inaugural Index’s overall score of 46.12 shows Americans leaning pessimistic about the entrepreneurial environment overall. Views on current conditions and future expectations are mixed, and optimism about rewards outweighing risks is modest. The weakest component by a wide margin is “Ease of Starting a Business.”
“The inaugural American Entrepreneurship Index raises a red flag for the nation and also shows a way forward,” said Victor W. Hwang, Founder and CEO of Right to Start. “The Index gives the country a tool it hasn’t previously had. It provides greater clarity on the barriers entrepreneurs face, points out where to make improvements, and benchmarks changes in the entrepreneurial environment over time.”
“The inaugural Index’s overall score – just below the neutral midpoint of 50 – is a signal that our country has real work to do on this key driver of economic growth,” said Kim Lane, Chief Operating Officer of Right to Start. “The category of ‘Ease of Starting a Business’ is substantially lower than the other three categories, but all four are much lower than they should be.”
The greatest challenge is that much of the public perceives starting a business as unnecessarily difficult, thereby likely discouraging millions before they begin. That is a serious concern for the nation’s long-term economy, as entrepreneurship is the driver of job growth, higher incomes, stronger growth, greater community wealth, and lower inequality.
Because 2026 is the inaugural year of the American Entrepreneurship Index, this score forms a baseline. On its own, it cannot tell us whether the nation's entrepreneurial outlook is historically strong or weak in relative terms. Future editions will track how the outlook of Americans shifts over time, alongside other established economic indicators.
The American Entrepreneurship Index is available here. To speak with Victor Hwang or Kim Lane, contact Henry Miller at hmiller@highimpactpartnering.com or 917-921-8034.
About Right to Start
Right to Start is a national nonpartisan movement to advance entrepreneurship as a civic priority throughout the United States. Entrepreneurship has long been viewed as a solitary endeavor – the lone starter in a basement or garage. Right to Start’s vision is to transform America so that all communities prioritize entrepreneurship, clearing away obstacles to ensure that every American has an equal right to start and a level playing field on which to embark.
