Business Registrations Increase 20% in 2021 After Decade Averaging 5% Growth
Connecticut’s economy has undoubtedly been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, but data shows that we are recovering as 2021 comes to an end as business starts steadily increase. In this post, we explore and analyze Connecticut business registration data from Connecticut Secretary of the State. This post will focus on data from January 2019 through November 2021, as full December 2021 data was not yet available at the time this analysis was done.
This analysis was featured in the CT Examiner.
Overall Business Regisrations
New business registrations in Connecticut dipped during early 2020 when Covid-19 first emerged, with a low of 2,196 registrations in April 2020. Since April 2020, business registrations have steadily increased with several small dips in fall 2020 and summer 2021. Even with these small dips, the number of business registrations each month of 2021 exceeded the number of registrations pre-Covid in 2019.
Those business registration statistics reflect a state economy that spent much of 2021 earnestly working at recovery. Throughout 2021, through November 30, there were 47,584 business registrations in Connecticut, the most in more than a decade. By comparison, there were 39,570 business registrations in 2020; and 36,323 in 2019.
From 2010 to 2020, business registrations in Connecticut increased by an average of 5% per year. In 2021, however, business registrations increased by over 20% (even with the exclusion of December 2021 data).
Woman-Owned, Minority-Owned, and Veteran-Owned Businesses
From January 2019 through November 2021, 15% of new businesses identified as woman-owned, 13% as minority-owned, and 1% as veteran-owned. Business registrations for veteran-owned businesses have remained relatively consistent from 2019 to 2021, while registrations for woman- and minority-owned businesses have steadily increased over the past few years.
Please note that the data set provides indicators for businesses that are woman-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned, however, this field is optional upon registration and not all businesses indicate these designations. While the data set provides a “yes” or “no” indicator for each designation, a response of “no” can mean that the business owner did not check a box for the designation. For example, a business owner identifying as a woman who failed to indicate so on the business registration form would show up as a non-woman business owner in the data set.
Which Industries Saw The Largest Number of Registrations?
Overall, 91,884 (74%) of businesses indicated their industry. The largest number of business registrations from January 2019 through November 2021 were in Real Estate Rental and Leasing (19% of all new businesses), followed by Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (11%), Other Services (11%), Retail Trade (11%), and Construction (10%). These five industries were consistently in the top for all years, with Real Estate Rental and Leasing with the highest number of registrations for all years.
Comparing each year by industry, 2021 clearly dominated.
In the Construction industry, for example, there were 1,695 business registrations in 2019. That more than doubled in 2020 to 3,567, and increased again, to 4,082 in 2021.
In Real Estate Rental and Leasing, there were 4,294 business registrations in 2019, 6,423 in 2020 and 7,092 in 2021.
In the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services business category, the number of business registrations in successive years was 2,544, followed by 3,869 and 4,037.
In the Retail Trade category, business registrations grew from 1,463 to 3,895, to 4,373 in 2021 (thru November).
Over the three years:
Minority-owned businesses represent 28% of new starts in Transportaion and Warehousing
Women-owned businesses represent 43% of new starts in Health Care and Social Assistance and 35% of new starts in Educational Services
The data analysis of business registrations shows that the largest percentage of woman-owned businesses are in Retail Trade (16%) Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (13%), Real Estate & Leasing (12%). Of all the business starts from 2019-2021, women-owned made up 43% in Health Care and Social Assistance and 35% in Educational Services.
The largest percentage of businesses owned by people of color are in Retail Trade (16%), Real Estate Rental & Leasing (12%), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (9%), and Construction (9%). Of all the business starts from 2019-2021, minority-owned made up 28% of Transportation and Warehousing and almost a quarter of Retail Trade.
The table below provides a snapshot of woman-owned and minority-owned businesses by the percentage of businesses in each industry.
Businesses by Town
From January 2019 through November 2021, towns with the highest number of business registrations were Stamford (5,578), Bridgeport (5,497), Hartford (4,091), New Haven (3,942), and Danbury (3,561). These towns generally have the highest number of registrations across all years.
When comparing pre-pandemic new starts (2019) to pandemic starts (2021):
Hartford experienced an increase of 62% — 1,055 to 1,712
Bridgeport experienced an increase of 59% —1,462 to 2,318
New Haven experienced an increase of 47% — 1,097 to 1,612
Stamford experienced an increase of 23 % - 1,671 to 2,052
Download The Data
If you are interested to explore business registration data, you can download a copy of business data from January 2010 through November 2021 here.
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