Charting the surge in Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses in the US
May 23, 2025
Highlights
- Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses have grown at an average annual rate of 7.7%, surpassing the 0.46% growth rate for all employer businesses.
- Between 2017 and 2022, Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses grew in 204 of 227 (89.9%) U.S. metro areas.
- Despite this growth, Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses are underrepresented compared to their share of the population in most metro areas—demonstrating the potential for economic growth and job creation that could stem from supporting these business owners.
- While most of this business growth can be explained by a strong post-pandemic economy, federal and state policies may have also driven growth.
Latino or Hispanic business owners capitalized on economic opportunity between 2017 and 2022, creating thousands of firms that benefited the communities they serve. In 2022, Latino or Hispanic individuals owned 7.9% of all employer businesses (those that employ at least one person)—a total of 465,202 firms.
Employer businesses are often community anchors that local governments and individuals rely on as engines of economic growth and employment hubs. In 2022, Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses employed 3,550,230 people and generated over $653 billion in total revenue—an increase of 14.1% and 18.9%, respectively, since 2021. This growth represents real and positive change, mirroring strong overall growth for minority business owners, which helped communities weather economic uncertainty, including the COVID-19 economic downturn.
But Latino or Hispanic individuals are still underrepresented as employer business owners compared to their share of the U.S. population. As mentioned above, Latino or Hispanic-identifying individuals owned 7.9% of employer businesses in 2022, despite comprising 19.1% of the population. In contrast, and as we’ve identified in previous reports, white Americans are overrepresented, representing 81.1% of all employer business owners yet only 74% of the U.S. population.
As this report demonstrates, growth in Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses hasn’t come at the expense of other race or ethnic groups; it has been additional, and there’s still room to grow. If the share of Latino or Hispanic-owned employer businesses equaled the share of Americans who identify as Latino or Hispanic, there would be 812,440 more businesses generating a combined $1.1 trillion in revenue and $250 billion in payroll.
This report, the second in the Center for Community Uplift’s series on Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses, analyzes Annual Business Survey (ABS), American Community Survey (ACS), and Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data from 2017 to 2022 to understand recent trends for these firms. Click here to continue reading the full report...
Read the full online article here.