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Report: U.S. Entrepreneurship Bounces Back From Recession; Youth Entrepreneurship Sizzles

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Mark Zuckerberg and Elizabeth Holmes could be facing some competition in the near future, as more Americans dive into entrepreneurship. About 14% of the U.S. population was involved in starting or running businesses in 2014, up from a post-recession low of 7.6 in 2010, according to a sweeping new study scheduled for release today.

Millennials are a key driver of the trend, with 18% of 25 to 34 year-olds in the U.S. starting or running new businesses in 2014, up from 15% in 2013, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a study of more than 200,000 individuals in 73 countries.

The study, scheduled for release today at the annual GEM meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, is sponsored by Babson College and partners around the globe including Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile; Tun Abdul Razak in Malaysia, Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico; and London Business School, which founded the report with Babson.

“We are highly optimistic because for the first time, more than half of American adults see good opportunities for starting businesses,” lead U.S. researcher and Babson College Entrepreneurship Professor Donna Kelley said in a press release for the report.

The study found North American entrepreneurs highly optimistic about the potential for "ambitious entrepreneurship"--meaning job creation and growth--with 2.4 of early-stage entrepreneurs showing confidence on this front.

In contrast, in Europe, 0.9% of entrepreneurs in EU countries and 0.4% of countries outside the EU are optimistic about their potential to create jobs. One barrier in countries with full employment is the lack of a skilled labor force, the study found.

North America leads the world in product innovation, the report found. Asia and Oceania also show high product innovation. But innovation is percolating in other parts of the world, too. Chile for instance, has a very high percentage of early-stage entrepreneurs (89%) delivering a new product/service to the marketplace.

Innovation isn't only taking place among traditional entrepreneurs. In a sign of the growth of "intrapreneurship," both the U.S. and Europe scored high on entrepreneurship employee activity. This is when an employee is actively involved in the development and implementation of a new idea or activity. Generally, developing economies scored lower in this area.

The study showed some interesting global trends:

* Young people are gravitating to entrepreneurship. The most active early-stage entrepreneurs around the world are 25 to 35 years old The most balanced participation across the generations is in North America.

* Men dominate early-stage entrepreneurship, even with no difference in their perception of entrepreneurial opportunities and their skills from women. What's holding women back? The study offers a clue: Women entrepreneurs expressed fear of failure at a higher rate than men.

* When women start businesses, they are more likely to do so out of necessity than men. Among the countries where men and women are closest to starting necessity-driven firms at equal rates are Australia, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Austria, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Singapore and Thailand.

* People in Africa are the most optimistic in perceiving opportunities for entrepreneurship and having the skills to act on them of any region in the world. They have the lowest fear of failure rates. In contrast, people in European Union economies are the least optimistic about entrepreneurial opportunities and about having the skills to be entrepreneurial.

* Starting a new business in the U.S. and Africa is seen as a good career choice, but European Union economies give entrepreneurship the lowest "social rating."

* The highest rates of early stage entrepreneurship are in Africa; the lowest are in the European Union.

* Entrepreneurs in both North America and the EU rate their countries high on providing a supportive infrastructure for entrepreneurship; Sub-Saharan African economies rated their countries lower on this front.

Clearly, entrepreneurial energy is flowing around the globe. As the economy continues to heal, we're likely to see some exciting new success stories.