A recent report from Congress's Joint Economic Committee (Entrepreneurial Dynamism and the Success of U.S. High-Tech, October 1999) noted a new study, the "Global Entrepreneurship Monitor," offered by researchers from Babson College and London Business School.  Measuring entrepreneurship as the percentage of adults that have started a business, they found significant disparities among nations.

Among the ten nations, the U.S. had the highest rate of entrepreneurship.

Nation: Rate of Entrepreneurship

United States: 8.4%
Canada: 6.8%
Israel: 5.4%
Italy: 3.4%
United Kingdom: 3.3%
Germany: 2.2%
Denmark: 2.0%
France: 1.8%
Japan: 1.6%
Finland: 1.4%

After comparing entrepreneurship to economic growth rates, the researchers concluded that levels of entrepreneurship account for about one-third of the variation in economic growth rates among nations.