The Most Entrepreneurial US Immigrants

It might not surprise you to know that the most common migrant entrepreneurs in the US by absolute numbers are Mexicans, Indians, Koreans, Cubans, and Chinese. Overall, this group makes up 35% of migrant entrepreneurs in the country, and is composed of the nationalities that are among the biggest sources of US immigrants today.

However, when it gets broken down by immigrants per capita, everything becomes much more interesting. It turns out that the Mediterranean seems to be the birthplace of entrepreneurial spirit. Folks hailing from Greece, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, and Syria all own more businesses per capita.

Amazingly, 1 of every 5 Greeks in the US own a business. This compares to 1 in 50 Mexicans, or 1 in 20 Germans for example. Also ranking quite high is South Africa with 15% entrepreneur immigrants. It is from there that Elon Musk was born in 1971. We have previously documented some of his endeavours here such as Tesla’s Gigafactory and the Hyperloop.

Opening graphic from: Migreat