This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When it comes to starting businesses, women in Utah have shined in the past decade and a half.

The state has an estimated 72,800 women-owned firms, employing 58,300 workers, and those companies are expected to generate $13 billion in sales this year.

More telling, Utah is ranked seventh nationally in the number of firms (73.4 percent) added in the past 16 years and fifth in growth of company revenue (156.7 percent), according to the State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express OPEN.

By comparison, the number of women-owned businesses has increased 59 percent nationally since 1997, according to the analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. businesses owned by women are generating more than $1 trillion in revenue each year nationwide.

Despite the fact that the number of women-owned firms account for 29 percent of all enterprises, they employ only 6 percent of the country's workforce and contribute about 4 percent of business revenue.

Overall, however, women-owned firms have done better than their male counterparts over the past 16 years. The number of men-owned firms (which represents 51 percent of all U.S. firms) grew by 25 percent — less than half the rate of women-owned firms.

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