The United States now ranks not first, not second, not third, but 12th among developed nations in terms of business startup activity. Hungary, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Israel, and Italy all have higher startup rates than does the United States.

Our single most serious economic problem is that we are behind in starting new firms per capita— yet it seems like a secret. You never see it mentioned in the media, nor hear from a politician that, for the first time in 35 years, U.S. business deaths now outnumber business births.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the total numbers of new business startups and business closures per year—the birth and death rates of American companies—have crossed for the first time since the measurement began. I am referring to businesses with one or more employees, the real engines of economic growth. Annually, 400,000 new businesses are being born nationwide, while 470,000 per year are dying, as seen in figure 1.

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