A new study has ranked the Arizona colleges that produce the most small business owners, with some unexpected schools topping the list.
Researchers at OnDeck analyzed LinkedIn profiles of alumni from the top 436 colleges across the U.S. to see what percentage of graduates have gone on to start their own small businesses.
Top colleges in Arizona for producing entrepreneurs:
- University of Arizona – 2.26% of graduates are business owners
- Northern Arizona University – 2.06%
- Arizona State University – 1.87%
- Grand Canyon University – 1.46%
For context, the national average across all 400+ schools analyzed is 2.09%.
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College marketing materials often focus on their big-name alumni, including those who have gone into leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies and international brand names.
But small businesses are the engine rooms of the American economy. Companies of under 500 employees account for 99.9% of all businesses, employing 45.9% of the population, creating the majority of new jobs and generating trillions of dollars in revenue. For most budding entrepreneurs, a school that has produced a small number of celebrity bosses should be less impressive than one that demonstrably prepares students for the realities of the entrepreneurial path and the nitty-gritty of business life — whether it’s running a family business or launching a startup.
To identify America’s small business factories, online business lender OnDeck used LinkedIn data and calculated the number of small business owners per 10,000 graduates for each of the 436 top colleges in U.S. News’ National College Rankings.
Key Findings
● Hardin-Simmons University in Texas is the U.S. college that produces the most small business owners — 368 per 10,000 graduates, according to LinkedIn data.
● The public college that produces the most small business owners is the University of Montana (363 per 10,000 graduates).
● California’s top college for producing small business owners is the University of the Pacific (331 per 10,000 graduates).
