A new report shows the number of women-owned businesses in Indiana is increasing.

The latest State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express and prepared by Ventureneer with support from CoreWoman, estimates Indiana is home to 181,400 women-owned companies, employing 191,600 people who have generated $33.3 billion in sales. The latest number of women-owned companies is a 0.8 percent increase from 2017 when the state had 179,900 women-owned companies.

The number of women-owned companies nationally has grown 5.7 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to the report. There were 12.3 million women-owned companies in the U.S., up from 11.6 million.

The report examines data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners and factored in relative changes in Gross Domestic Product.

The report also reviews data going back to 1972, the first time the U.S. Census Bureau provided data on minority- and women-owned businesses.

Nationally, the number of women-owned businesses increased dramatically between 1972 and 2018, growing from 402,000 to 12.3 million. In that time, employment in those businesses grew 40-fold from 230,000 to 9.2 million, and revenues rose from $8.1 billion to $1.8 trillion.  

When comparing Indiana to the rest of the county, the report ranked the state 21st in growth of number of women-owned firms since 2007 with a 39.9 percent increase, 13th in growth of jobs created with a 27.3 percent increase and fifth in growth of firm revenues with a 61.4 percent increase.