Virginia is for women-owned businesses

Virginia ranked in the top 10 states for growth of its women-owned businesses in an annual survey by American Express OPEN.

The commonwealth ranked seventh on the third annual State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, which looks at the growth in number, employment and revenue of women-owned firms nationwide.

The number of women-owned firms in Virginia has grown an estimated 64.1 percent since 1997 to 217,000 firms, according to the report. Nationally, the number of firms has increased an estimated 59.1 percent to 8.6 million firms.

Employment at Virginia’s women-owned firms grew 22.2 percent over 15 years to 210,500 workers, whereas employment grew 9.6 percent nationally to 7.754 million.

Revenue at women-owned firms in Virginia more than doubled over the time period to $35.6 million, compared with a 63.1 percent growth nationally.

When compared with other states, Virginia ranked eighth in its revenue growth and 15th in both its growth in number and employees of women-owned firms. That gave the commonwealth an overall ranking of No. 7, down one spot from 2012.

The study is based on analysis of the 1997, 2002 and 2007 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s quinquennial business census, the Survey of Business Owners.

The Washington, D.C. region ranked fifth for its growth of women-owned businesses on the report’s list of metropolitan areas, falling from the No. 1 spot on the list last year.