Prowess Facts & Figures

Here you can find key statistics regarding women and entrepreneurship. This is an ongoing resource which will be continuously updated. The reports referred to here are available in our online research library, where you can find hundreds of reports categorised by theme and region. This resource is open to everyone.

Prowess Statistics

Each year Prowess members:

Help over 100,000 women looking to start or grow businesses every year. They help 10,000 of them get a business off the ground, contributing an additional £1.5 billion to the UK economy in additional revenue
Support the launch of 25,000 new businesses each year, 39% of which are women-owned
Provide business networking events and opportunities to 40,000 people each year, 83% of whom are women
Provide business development training and support to 70,000 businesses, 35% of which are women-owned
Directly support 18,000 people into jobs, or further training, 42% of whom are women
Provide over 5,000 business loans, 32% to women - delivered by 14 members
Issue 4,500 grants, 27% to women - delivered by 16 members

The majority of Prowess members who deliver business support services do so as part of a mainstream service; 26% deliver services targeted specifically at women.

The majority of Prowess members providing business support services define themselves as independent and not-for-profit (69%). The others are split nearly evenly between the public (17%) and private sectors (14%).

Half of Prowess members provide services on a local or sub-regional level, with 40% delivering region-wide. 10% deliver on a multi-regional or national level.

Recent figures from year 1 to year 2 of data collected from 11 of the Prowess Flagship members show that there was a 205% increase in enquiries from women with 6,623 actual enquiries. (The Regional State of Women’s Enterprise in England, Prowess 2005).

Female Entrepreneurship: General Statistics and facts

There are approximately 1,013,000 self-employed women (7.6% of women in employment) and 2,706,000 self-employed men (17.4% of men in employment) in the UK. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
In the UK, women-owned businesses comprise approximately 16% of the business stock and women comprise approximately 27% of the self-employed population. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) rates for women in the UK are 3.9% of the total working age female population. This compares with 6.2% of the total (male and female) population. The female entrepreneurial activity rate is only half that of male entrepreneurial activity. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
Men are now twice as likely to be entrepreneurially active as women but in 2001 were two and a half times more likely to be entrepreneurially active. (Stairways to growth, Supporting the ascent of Women's Enterprise in the UK, GEM/Prowess 2006)
The most entrepreneurial age group for females is 35 – 44 (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, London Business School, February 2006)
There are 602,000 female owned businesses in the UK representing just 14% of all businesses (Annual Small Business Survey February 2008)
In the USA the Women's Business Act 1988 put in place long-term infrastucture to support women's enterprise development. Since then women's business ownership has increased significantly.

The economic case for encouraging more women to start their own business:

The growth in women’s enterprise in the USA has been aided by Federal recognition of its importance and a sustained commitment to its development over a thirty year period. Although there have been remarkable policy developments in the UK over the past five years, it will take sustained commitment to ensure an equivalent level of development in women’s enterprise within the UK. (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006)
Women in the USA are twice as likely to be entrepreneurially active as women in the UK. The entrepreneurial rates for men are roughly the same in the UK as the US, any significant increase in business formation will only come from encouraging more women into business (State of Women's Enterprise in the UK, Dr. Rebecca Harding, Nov 2007)

If the UK could achieve the same levels of female entrepreneurship as the US, Britain would gain three quarters of a million more businesses. (Gordon Brown, Advancing Enterprise Conference, 04.02.05)
There are roughly 620,000 majority women owned businesses in the UK generating around £130 billion turnover. (Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Minister for Women and Equality speaking at 2nd Prowess conference)
If women started businesses at the same rate as men, we would have 150,000 extra start-ups each year. (Rt Hon Jacqui Smith, Minister for Women and Equality speaking at 2nd Prowess conference)
Women starting up in business will tend to provide a more immediate contribution to the economy: Around one in five women come into self-employment from unemployment compared with around one in fifteen for men. (SBS Promoting Female Entrepreneurship, March 2005)
A pound invested in developing women’s enterprise provides a greater return on investment than a pound invested in developing male owned enterprise. (Chief Executive of the Small Business Service, Martin Wyn Griffith, Speaking at the National Dialogue for Entrepreneurship, Washington DC, March 2005)

Motivations for starting a business:

54% of women start a business so they can choose what hours they work, compared to only 35% of men. (Women & Men Business Owners in the United Kingdom)
21% of women state family commitments as a reason for becoming self-employed compared to only 2% of men (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

Attitudes:

A third of the female population would start a business if it wasn’t for the fear of failure (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2003)
In 2003 there was an increase of 27% in the number of women who felt they had the skills to start a business. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Around 8% of women have an interest in starting and enterprise, compared with 13% of men. (SBS Promoting Female Entrepreneurship, March 2005)
There are no significant differences between men and women in terms of their attitudes towards entrepreneurship as a career choice or as a high status activity. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Over a half of women choose to start their business on a part-time basis

Business Support

The choice of targeted female-focussed business support is important to women. The National Council of Graduate Enterprise (NCGE) reports that 98% of women chose to participate in their Women’s Flying Start Programme because it was women-only. Similarly 98% of women involved in the pioneering Enterprising Women initiative said women specific support was either important or very important to them. (Enterprising Women Evaluation and Research Report 2007).
Women who have undergone some form of enterprise training are twice as likely to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity (GEM UK 2005).
70% of women-owned businesses seek advice at the start-up phase compared with 64% of all businesses (SBS Promoting Female Entrepreneurship, March 2005).
23% of the Business Link Operators’ clients are women (Estimation based on Aggregated Business Link Customer Satisfaction Return, Dec 04).
Relatively high proportions of both mentors (48%) and clients (38%) of the Business Volunteer Mentoring Scheme are women.
Women's enterprise initiatives complement and add value to mainstream business support services located nearby - they serve different markets (Analyzing the Economic impact of the Women's Business Center Programme, National Women's Business Council 2004, USA).
Majority female owned businesses are more likely to use an accountant than majority male-owned businesses and less likely to use no external advice than majority male-owned businesses (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005).
Targeted Women’s enterprise initiatives complement and add value to mainstream business support services located nearby. The West Midlands Regional Women’s Enterprise Unit (RWEU) found that 58% of their clients in 2007 had not previously used ‘mainstream’ business support. A 2008 analysis found this figure had risen to 90% (Impact Assessment –Year 2 Regional Women’s Enterprise Unit (RWEU) West Midlands, Mar 08).

Access to finance

There is unequivocal evidence that women-owned businesses start with lower levels of overall capitalization, lower ratios of debt finance, and are much less likely to use private equity or venture capital. The level of start-up capitalization used by women-owned businesses is, on average, only one third of that used by male-owned businesses (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006).
Recent evidence from the UK Survey of SME Finances reported that women were charged more than men on term loans (2.9% vs. 1.9%). No other study has found such a large difference in loan terms, and this result needs further research and explanation (Women's Business Ownership, Professor Sara Carter, 2006).
Fear of debt is the single largest barrier to entrepreneurship for both men and women, although women are significantly more fearful than men. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)
Women in the UK are twice as likely to live in poverty as men and they have more to risk by coming off benefits. On average, benefits and tax credits comprise one fifth of women's income and less than one tenth of men's (Fawcett Society 2005).

Caring Responsibilities:

80% of women compared with 17% of men are responsible for looking after the children or arranging childcare facilities. (The barriers start to fall – Barclays 2000)
A full time nursery place for a child under two typically costs over £7000 per year. (Childcare Costs Survey, Daycare Trust, Jan 2005)
The costs of care can be higher for business owners who have no option but to work flexibly and travel to develop their business. But unlike other essential business costs, caring is not tax deductable.
There is a severe shortage of registered childcare places - there are only enough childcare places for 25% of children aged under 8. (Daycare Trust, Jan 2005)

Global context:

Around 30% of all US businesses are majority female owned. The number of women-owned businesses continues to grow at twice the rate of all US firms, and they are increasing in economic clout.
Between 1991 and 1996 the number of self-employed women in Canada grew by 44% (compared to 20% for men).
In 2004, the average level of female total entrepreneurial activity (TEA) rate across the 34 GEM countries varied from 39.1% in Peru to 1.2% in Japan. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2004 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)

Social Enterprise:

For the UK as a whole, women are more likely than men to be involved with a socially orientated start-up 5.8% of women compared to 4.9% of men. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Focus on Social Entrepreneurs, GEM 2004)
In four of the UK regions women are more likely than men to be setting up a socially orientated venture or activity – the East Midlands, London, the North East and the South East. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM 2004)
Women are more likely than men to think that social, ethical and environmental considerations in business are important. (59% compared with 48%) (A Survey of Social Enterprise Across the UK, DTi, 2005)
The gender gap for social entrepreneurship activity is far narrower than for mainstream enterprise activity (Stairways to growth: supporting the ascent of women owned businesses in the UK, Prowess/GEM 2006)

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women

Women of mixed ethnicity are over two and a half times more entrepreneurial than white women (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2006).
BAME female entrepreneurship is clustered in areas of multiple deprivation, suggesting that ‘employment substitution’ is taking place with low-paid work being sub-contracted and women having to act on their own account (State of Women's Enterprise in the UK, Dr. Rebecca Harding, 2007)
The predominant source of start-up finance for many ethnic groups is friends and family. The figures are 'other Asian' 53.4%, Pakistani 93%, Black African 52.6% and Black Other 52.9%. The predominant source of finance for White people is bank overdraft (29.3%) as it is for Black Caribbean people (38.8%) (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004).
For black people there is almost no entrepreneurial gender gap (black female entrepreneurial activity is 97% of black male entrepreneurial activity) (State of Women's Enterprise in the UK, Dr. Rebecca Harding, 2007).
Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) for white females is 3.6% and is two and a half times higher amongst women from mixed backgrounds (10.2%), for Bangladeshi women it is (10.9%), Other Asians (10.3%) and Black Caribbeans (10.5%). The most entrepreneurial female grouping is that of 'other Black' at (29.9%) of all women. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004).
Black women are most likely to feel that ethnicity has strong impact on business (80%), compared to Chinese women (46%) and Asian women (46%). (Ethnic Minority Business Conference 2005)
25% of ethnic minority owned businesses report a lack of self-confidence with finance, which is above the average level (16%). (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005)
A survey of over 300 BAME women leaders found that over three quarters felt the leadership style of white women is more positively perceived in the workplace and 80% felt that the communication style of white women is more positively regarded. (Different Women, Different Places, The Diversity Practice Ltd, 2007)

The nature of women owned businesses

Women are nearly three times as likely to collaborate with research institutions (universities in particular) than male businesses (11.4% compared with 3.8%) (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Female entrepreneurs are more likely to a product of service unfamiliar to the market, to have fewer competitors, and they are more likely to be using technology in their products or services than their male counterparts. In addition they are more likely than male businesses to be offering a product or service to the market that has been developed in the last year. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Women do not tend to collaborate with competitors as much as men do. 23.5% of male owner-managed businesses collaborate with other enterprises compared with 18.7% of female-owned businesses. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
48% of female entrepreneurs own businesses in the service sector, compared with 36% of male entrepreneurs (A Strategic Framework for Women’s Enterprise, Small Business Service, 2003)

Regional Breakdown:

Female entrepreneurship has increased in the regions and nations where a strong emphasis has been placed on increasing levels of female participation (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2004 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship)
The South East region currently has 165,000 female entrepreneurs. If women matched the number of male business start-ups in the region, that would create 25,000 additional firms for the South East. (South East England Directory of Business Support for Women 2005)
Female entrepreneurial activity has increased in particular English regions compared to male activity. This is especially the case in the East Midlands (48%), East of England (58%), the North East (58%) and the South West (70%). However, decreases can be seen in London and the West Midlands. (The Regional State of Women’s Enterprise in England, Prowess 2005)
The South West has the highest level of female entrepreneurship at 5.6% of the adult female population and the West Midlands has the lowest at 2.5% (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM 2004)

Young Entrepreneurs:

Amongst younger age groups, 18 to 24 and 25 to 34, female entrepreneurship is still half of male entrepreneurship, but the picture amongst students is more promising with a TEA female rate of 2.6% compared to male TEA rate of 1.6% (The Enterprise Report 2005: Making Ideas Happen; Enterprise Insight, 2005).
51% of female students (14-19 age group) say they want to be entrepreneurs, just 4% fewer than males. In 2004, the divide was 20%, with 55% of men interested, compared with only 35% of women. (Student attitudes to business, businessdynamics, 2005).
It is amongst the 18-24 age group that individuals are most likely to think that entrepreneurship is a good career choice and that it has a high status in society (84% compared to the 75% in the next age group) (The Enterprise Report 2005: Making Ideas Happen; Enterprise Insight, 2005).
Every week around 550 businesses are launched by young entrepreneurs under 25, which represent 7% of all start-ups in England and Wales (The Enterprise Report 2005: Making Ideas Happen; Enterprise Insight, 2005).
Entrepreneurial activity amongst people with no formal education is very high in the 18-24 year old age group (14.2%). Indeed for the 18-24 year old age group, entrepreneurial activity is twice as high in this category as it is for any other qualification level. (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM, Jan 2004)
Role models continue to be overwhelmingly male, but for the first time female personalities like JK Rowling and Charlotte Church have been mentioned as inspirations in business. 73% of the students surveyed offered a business related role model, with family members mentioned most often. (Student attitudes to business, businessdynamics, 2005)
Young men are more likely than women to want to run their own business, 64% vs 50%. (UCB Home Loans research, Nationwide, March 2006)
A total of 56% of 16-21 year-olds would like to become self-employed when they are older. (UCB Home Loans, Nationwide, March 2006)
Young people living in the South West and London felt most strongly that they would like to be self-employed (65% and 64%), with those in the North East and East Midlands feeling least strongly (42% and 48%).

Finance:

Both male and female businesses require on average around £20,000 in start-up money. Female entrepreneurs will, on average, put in £10,106 of their own money at this stage, while men will put in around £13,500. This leaves an initial start-up funding gap for male owned businesses of £6,500 and a gap of £9,894 for female-owned businesses. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
27% of women compared with 17% of men will obtain this money from their close family. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
The majority of start-up finance comes from banking sources (43% for women and 46% for men) but there is no statistically significant difference between male and female usage of bank finance. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Female Business Angels will invest a median amount of £20,000 into start-up businesses compared with £17,142 by male Business Angels. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Majority female-owned businesses pay significantly higher margins on term loans than male-owned businesses (2.9 versus 1.9 percentage points over base). (Dr Stuart Fraser, Finance for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, 2005)
33% of female compared to 20% of male businesses had used government programmes to fund their business start-up. (Achieving the Vision, Female Entrepreneurship British Chambers of Commerce, July 2004)
Self-employed women who work full time have a mean total weekly income of £412 compared to men’s of £598 which means there is a pay gap of 31%. (Facts About Women & Men In Great Britain, Equal Opportunities Commission 2005)

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