Entrepreneurship
Are immigrants more likely to start businesses?
Yes. Immigrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs than U.S.-born Americans. Immigrants play an outsized role in business creation and are a crucial part of the U.S. economy.Today, immigrants make up 23.6% of all entrepreneurs nationwide, even though they account for just 14.3% of the U.S. population.
Immigrant entrepreneurs start businesses ranging from neighborhood small shops to some of the largest and most successful companies in the country, including a significant portion of Fortune 500 businesses. They create jobs, generate income, and contribute to economic growth in communities across the United States.
What kind of businesses do immigrants start?
Immigrants start businesses across virtually every sector of the U.S. economy. They are particularly prominent in industries including accommodations and food services, construction, professional services, transportation, retail, and healthcare.For example, immigrants make up one-third of entrepreneurs in the accommodations and food services industry, as well as 26.6% of entrepreneurs in construction.
Immigrant entrepreneurs also start and build companies that grow far beyond the small-business stage. Some of America’s best-known corporations — such as Amazon, Apple, NVIDIA, and Levi Strauss & Co. — were founded by immigrants or their children.
How many people do immigrant-owned businesses employ?
Immigrant-owned businesses provide millions of jobs for American workers. The latest data shows the significant role immigrant-owned and immigrant-founded businesses play in job creation.The impact is especially visible among the country’s biggest and most valuable companies. In the 2025 Fortune 500, a total of 231 companies — nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies — were founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.
These companies include businesses founded directly by immigrants as well as companies founded by the children of immigrants. Of the 231 New American Fortune 500 companies in 2025, 109 were founded by immigrants and 122 were founded by children of immigrants.
Do immigrants create jobs?
Yes. Immigrant entrepreneurs are job creators. New businesses are a major source of job growth in the United States, and immigrants play a particularly important role in business creation.Our research shows that immigrant-founded businesses often grow into major employers and economic engines. Nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Collectively, these companies employed more than 15.4 million people worldwide and generated $8.6 trillion in revenue in fiscal year 2024.
Immigrant entrepreneurship benefits more than the entrepreneurs themselves: immigrant-founded and immigrant-owned businesses create opportunities for workers, support local economies, and contribute to innovation and economic growth. They have been especially helpful as baby boomers retire, fueling growth in sectors that would have otherwise seen major declines.
How do immigrants contribute to America’s biggest companies?
Immigrants and their children have founded some of America's most influential companies — and their presence among the nation's largest businesses continues to grow.In 2025, 46.2% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children, the highest share recorded by the Council since we began tracking immigrant-founded Fortune 500 companies in 2011.
Among the 14 companies appearing on the Fortune 500 for the first time in 2025, a total of 10 were founded by immigrants or their children. This included companies rising in the ranks of the Fortune 500, like Ace Hardware and Sirius XM Holdings.
Immigrant-founded and immigrant-descended companies are particularly prominent in major industries. They account for 80% of Fortune 500 companies in professional and other services, 65.6% in manufacturing, and 57.5% in information.
Why are immigrants more likely to become entrepreneurs?
There’s no single reason immigrants have higher rates of entrepreneurship. Starting a business can provide immigrants with an opportunity to use their skills in their new home, pursue economic mobility for themselves and their families, and serve needs in their communities.Immigrants also bring skills, knowledge, experiences, and connections from around the world. Their businesses range from local ventures to companies that operate on a global scale.
It’s worth noting, however, that the United States doesn’t have a dedicated visa specifically for immigrant entrepreneurs, despite relying heavily on their contributions. This gap can make it difficult for promising foreign entrepreneurs to establish and grow businesses in the United States — even when they have the resources and ideas to do so. Coupled with increasingly restrictive U.S. immigration policies, it has become even more difficult to drive international talent to this country.
Supporting immigrant entrepreneurs — and creating streamlined pathways that allow talented entrepreneurs to build and grow businesses in the United States — can help strengthen the U.S. economy, provide jobs to Americans, and build up local communities.
Report: Texas Should Let In All The Immigrants
Beaumont Enterprise October 1, 2012 ‘Cause it would be big fat giant money. Our humble leader, Rick Perry, is all about the Benjamins. And the passage of the DREAM ACT would be an immediate boon to our bottom line. According to a joint report by the progressive Center for… Read More
Report: Approving DREAM Act Would Boost Arizona’s Economy
Cronkite News October 1, 2012 WASHINGTON – Arizona could add more than 83,000 jobs and see an additional $18.4 billion in economic activity by 2030 if the DREAM Act was approved, a new report claims. The Arizona impact is just part of the $329 billion in economic activity that… Read More
Crovitz: Washington’s New Twist on Human Sacrifice
Wall Street Journal September 30, 2012 In the 1990s, just before the handover of Hong Kong to China, there was a going-away lunch for the Canadian consul general. When I entered the venue, I thought it must be the wrong place. The hundreds of ethnic Chinese gathered for the… Read More
Bloomberg on Financial Collapse, Job Growth
CBS This Morning September 13, 2012 http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7421442n&tag=mncol;lst;6/ BLOOMBERG: I think saying things like let’s invest in infrastructure. We need infrastructure desperately. But, infrastructure is not a jobs creation program in the short term. It gives us the tools to have an economy down the road, but most people… Read More
Immigrant Roots of Mega Millionaires
Millionaire Corner September 13, 2012 First and second generation Americans make up a disproportionate share of the nation’s mega millionaire investors, according to the latest Millionaire Corner research, which tracks a high degree of upward mobility among Americans born in another country, or who have foreign-born parents. Twelve percent… Read More
Latino Immigrants As Job Creators
Voxxi September 13, 2012 CFR’s Renewing America initiative just released a new report by Alexandra Starr, a fellow at the New America Foundation, titled “Latino Immigrant Entrepreneurs: How to Capitalize on Their Economic Potential.” Many people view low-skilled immigrants as an economic burden because they produce few income taxes. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg Gives Washington Economic Tips
The Epoch Times September 13, 2012 NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloomberg has long been lauding the city’s economic recovery to New Yorkers. On Wednesday, he showcased his advice to Washington. Bloomberg’s speech at a forum hosted by The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. came at an appropriate time. This week… Read More
Editorial: Unleashing The Potential of Immigrants
Washington Post September 2, 2012 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are entitled to a free public education through high school. Thanks to President Obama’s executive order this spring, more than 1 million of them are now eligible for temporary work permits. But even as America slouches toward recognition that undocumented youngsters are… Read More
Entrepreneurial Spirit Knows No Borders
The Seattle Times August 30, 2012 In the 1920s, architects designed the 23-story art deco Exchange Building in downtown Seattle to house a stock exchange. But those plans ended when the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929. More than 80 years later, this Second Avenue building will finally host… Read More
A Common Cause for Both Parties
Forbes August 29, 2012 National conventions are a time for the two political parties to present their opposing visions of the next four years. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t continue to seek common ground on critical problems facing the country. This week at the Republican National Convention, where… Read More
America's story is an immigrant story.
