Women own more than 11 million companies, or 38 percent of American businesses, according to SCORE, a national non-profit association headquartered in Herndon, VA dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow and succeed nationwide. It’s also a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and has been mentoring small business owners for more than 50 years.

According to SCORE, bellingham.score.org/resource/infographic-women-small-business, women also support nearly nine million jobs and generate more than $1.6 trillion in revenue.

That’s impressive enough, but a new report by the National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) cites how Latina woman-owned businesses have increased by more than 137 percent in the last 10 years.

And these particular businesses generate $97 billion in revenue, further cites Washington, DC-based NWBC, a non-partisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the president, congress and the SBA on economic issues of importance to woman business owners.

The NWBC study aimed to identify the unique characteristics of Hispanic woman entrepreneurs, review entrepreneurship training program practices that work to encourage successful business outcomes among this population, highlights specific programs that exemplify these practices and suggests targeted tactics to unlock their potential.

“With the U.S. Census Bureau projecting the number of Hispanic women to nearly double by 2050 and for Hispanic people to become the number-one minority group in the U.S., the growth rate in the number of Hispanic women-owned businesses is expected to continue to surge,” says NWBC.

Between 1996 and 2014, Hispanics showed the highest growth in entrepreneurship of any U.S. racial group. “The 2012 Survey of Business Owners and Self-Employed Persons (SBO) shows that Hispanic woman owned 5.3 percent of U.S. firms (1.5 million),” notes NWBC in the report.

“Although this percentage is lower than that of other groups, its growth potential is high. If Hispanic women’s share of business ownership (5.3 percent) were commensurate with their share of the population (8.3 percent), Hispanic women would own nearly 2.4 million businesses. This would represent a 60 percent increase above current levels.”

Despite the number of Hispanic woman entrepreneurs growing at a faster rate than any other group, continues NWBC. “In the case of Hispanic woman entrepreneurs, according to the SBO, in 2012 there were 325,236 foreign-born Hispanic woman entrepreneurs in the U.S. Foreign-born Hispanic women were nearly twice as likely as native-born Hispanic women to be entrepreneurs: 3.4 versus 1.9 percent, respectively.”

The report further revealed that foreign-born individuals contribute strongly to the economic growth of the U.S. by starting new businesses. “In 2016 almost 40 percent of the Hispanic-owned businesses that increased their numbers of employees were owned and operated by foreign-born individuals,” notes NWBC.

Furthermore, the NWBC also found that estimates suggested that by 2016, Hispanic women entrepreneurs created an additional 80,000 new jobs for a total of 550,400.

More insights can be found at nwbc.gov/sites/default/files/NWBC Hispanic Women Entrepreneurs Report.pdf.