Alabama Asian Population Shows Strong Entrepreneurial Spirit, According to UA Center

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that people of Asian origin in Alabama have a strong entrepreneurial spirit in the state, according to Annette Watters, manager of the State Data Center at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce.

Watters said the Census Bureau recently released preliminary tabulations about minority- and women-owned businesses in Alabama. Receipts from Asian-owned businesses in 2007 topped $2.6 billion, and the number of Asian-owned firms increased 63 percent in five years while receipts increased 80 percent. There were 6,949 Asian-owned businesses in Alabama in 2007.

“These estimates are available only once every five years, for years ending in two and seven, and the estimates for the year 2007 have just now become available,” Watters said.

Watters said the estimates are based on the 2007 Survey of Business Owners.

“The survey asked a sample of businesses with receipts of $1,000 or more to fill out an extensive questionnaire about their receipts, employees and several questions about their ownership, such as the percentage of ownership by gender, ethnicity, race and veteran status,” Watters said.

According to Watters, the Census Bureau faced special challenges to generate tabulations about business ownership.

“For example, if a firm responded that its owner is a woman who is African-American and Vietnamese, the firm would be included in both the Asian and the Black tabulations and also the women-owned tabulation, but would be counted only once in the higher level of all firms’ estimates,” Watters said.

Also, she noted, if a firm has more than one location under common ownership or control, all locations are included as part of the owning or controlling firm.

Categories of business ownership are defined as having 51 percent or more of the stock or equity in the business. For this reason, the total of all firms is larger than the sum of women-owned firms plus men-owned firms. Of course, many firms are owned equally by a man and a woman (or men and women) and neither gender has as much as 51 percent of the business.

The preliminary tabulations are state-level estimates only, and the data are based on a sample, not a complete count of all businesses.

“There is always a margin of error associated with every survey,” Watters said, “and even though these data are preliminary, the results show quite a bit of good news for Alabama.”

For example, Watters said, the number of black-owned businesses in Alabama almost doubled between 2002 and 2007. There were 28,666 black-owned businesses in the state in 2002, and there were 56,702 in 2007, an increase of 28,036. These include businesses both with and without paid employees. Receipts for black-owned firms increased 30 percent between 2002 and 2007, from $1.6 billion in 2002 to $2.1 billion in 2007.

Alabama does not have as many Hispanic-owned businesses as it has black-owned businesses, but Hispanic businesses also increased dramatically during the first part of the 21^st century. In 2002 there were 2,524 Hispanic businesses in Alabama, and by 2007 there were 4,425, a 75 percent increase. Receipts for Hispanic businesses in the state topped the $1 billion mark in 2007, a 34 percent increase from 2002.

The Census Bureau will release detailed estimates for counties, cities and metro areas throughout the coming months. More specific information for Hispanic-owned businesses will be available in September 2010; for women-owned businesses in December 2010; for black-owned businesses in February 2011; and for Asian-owned businesses in April 2011.