Issue Brief: Entrepreneurs in College

July 11, 2024 / RERI Research Team

Entrepreneurial activity is a crucial component of any growing economy. Entrepreneurs are inherently risk-takers that inject new ideas, products and services into the market, bringing with them job creation and economic growth to their local economy. Many programs at higher education institutions, including Florida Gulf Coast University, offer programs tailored toward helping entrepreneurs launch their business. However, measurement of entrepreneurs attending college programs is sparse, with limited data collected on them. In this issue brief, we attempt to define an “entrepreneur in college” to gain a better understanding of this demographic.

The primary source of data for this analysis comes from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimate microdata. The ACS, an annual publication of the U.S. Census Bureau, surveys over three million households each year and covers topics not included in the more popular decennial census, including education, employment, health and transportation. ACS microdata for this analysis was collected from IPUMS USA, which standardizes and integrates microdata from various sources across both time and space.

We define a “entrepreneur in college” as a local resident who is 1) enrolled in an undergraduate, graduate or professional program in college, 2) is self-employed and 3) earns some form of farm or non-farm self-employment income. A person is defined as self-employed in the ACS if they work for profit or fees in their own unincorporated business, profession or trade, or who operated a farm. Furthermore, the ACS also defines non-farm self-employment income as net money income from one’s own business, professional enterprise or partnership. Farm self-employment income includes net money income from the operation of a farm by a person on his or her own account, either as an owner, renter or sharecropper.

Results from the analysis found that the share of total college students that were entrepreneurs increased from 1.4 percent in 2017 to 1.6 percent in 2022 but trailed both Florida and the nation (2.0 percent each in 2022). A large share of these entrepreneurs in college were less than 35 years old in 2022, with 242 students between 15 and 24 years old and 208 students between 25 and 34 years old. Majority of entrepreneurs in college identified as White alone, not Hispanic or Latino (570 students, 61.6 percent of total), with a smaller share of entrepreneurs identifying as Hispanic or Latino of any race (222 students, 24.0 percent of total). Lastly, the region saw a large increase in the number of male entrepreneurs in college (460 students), rising 177.4 percent from 2017 to 2022.

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Issue Brief: Entrepreneurs in College

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