To understand entrepreneurship more fully, we must study the pathways to business ownership and extend the scope of research beyond existing business owners.

The EPOP survey considers the experiences of current entrepreneurs, individuals in the process of starting a business, and those who are no longer business owners.

NORC launched the EPOP Survey Project in 2022. Since then, the EPOP Project has conducted three annual surveys collecting experiences and attitudes towards business ownership and self-employment from nearly 100,000 individuals. EPOP is unique in that is modularly captures and measures experiences along the continuum of entrepreneurship—from prospective owners to freelancers and gigworkers to current business owners to those who have closed their businesses.