New report shows how vital Latino entrepreneurship is to the U.S. economy

Latino businesses surged during the financial crisis and after the pandemic, despite many challenges, according to a new report out Thursday from researchers at UCLA and Cal Lutheran University. It notes that Latino entrepreneurship is key to the U.S. economy.

The report covers a 16-year period through 2023. During that time, the number of Latino-owned businesses grew almost seven times faster than non-Latino companies.

They even powered through the Great Recession. The number of non-Latino businesses shrank slightly from 2007 to 2012, but Latino-owned firms grew by more than 46%.

As for the pandemic era, the report shows the age-adjusted death rate from COVID for Latinos was more than twice the non-Latino white rate. Still, the researchers found that Latino-owned businesses grew by more than 47% in the years before, during, and after the pandemic. That was more than four times the non-Latino growth rate.

But there are many challenges. A report last year from Stanford found that just 21% of Latino entrepreneurs said they got the loans they needed for their ventures, and only about half of Latino business owners got an explanation for why their loans were denied.