It seems that the rising economic tide of the 1990s did indeed lift all boats. The U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that the number of minority-owned businesses more than doubled from 1987 to 1997, from a quarter million to a half million businesses, and that the revenues they collectively generated grew more than fourfold. Although there still appears to be some disparity in the number of companies owned by blacks as compared with the number owned by Hispanics and Asians, businesses owned by all three groups had comparable survival rates from 1992 to 1997.

Percentage growth in minority-owned businesses, 1987 to 1997

Hispanic-owned businesses
Number of businesses: 144%
Annual receipts: 529%

Black-owned businesses
Number of businesses: 27%
Annual receipts: 127%

Asian-owned businesses
Number of businesses: 157%
Annual receipts: 580%

Source: U.S. Small Business Administration,
Office of Advocacy, based on data from
Survey of Minority-Owned Business Enterprises,