News

Business Formation Statistics, a new data product provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, is now  included in DVRPC’s Tracking Progress trends. The Connections 2050 Plan seeks to foster innovation and a highly-skilled workforce, expand entrepreneurialism, encourage new business formation and growth, and support key economic sectors. Business formation statistics help quantify where we stand in achieving that goal. 

2022 business formation counts were recently released and show average annual activity increased by 80% compared to 2009. 2020–2022 saw unprecedented growth stemming from economic shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic, which indicates the region’s resilience and ability to adapt in the face of rapid and historic change. The region was already experiencing strong growth prior to the pandemic, and then 2020 and 2021 saw successive, record-breaking business formations. While  2022 formations were on par with 2020, this decrease was to be expected as the economy began to somewhat stabilize in 2022. We’ll continue to monitor whether the region sustains new business applications at higher counts than prior to the pandemic with each annual release.