EPOP:2024 Finds Personal Assets, Credit Cards Dominate Business Start-Up Funding
CHICAGO, December 4, 2024 – NORC at the University of Chicago today released the public use data files and initial findings from the third year of the Entrepreneurship in the Population (EPOP) Survey. The survey findings reveal that American entrepreneurs heavily rely on personal financial resources to launch their businesses, with limited success accessing institutional funding sources.
The EPOP:2024 Survey shows that 83 percent of business owners use personal assets for start-up costs, while credit cards are the second most common funding source. Further results reveal that business owners frequently apply for start-up capital through venture capital, grants, or crowdfunding, but few receive funding from these sources.
“EPOP continues to be a unique data source for understanding not only the experiences of current business owners but also individuals who have previously shut their business or are currently trying to start a business.”
Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of all start-up funding can be attributed to personal assets or credit cards, and only 19 percent of funding comes from loans from banks or government sources. The remainder of funding comes from crowdfunding, venture capital, grants, and funding from family and friends.
“EPOP continues to be a unique data source for understanding not only the experiences of current business owners but also individuals who have previously shut their business or are currently trying to start a business,” said Quentin Brummet, EPOP principal investigator and a principal research methodologist at NORC. “The 2024 findings continue to provide essential information for understanding the unique challenges facing these individuals and the landscape of starting a business.”
The EPOP Survey includes measures of entrepreneurial behavior at local, state, and national levels. EPOP data provide policymakers with new information on past, present, and future business ownership and self-employment in their communities.
The EPOP Survey, guided and funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, is an annual, cross-sectional, nationally representative study of about 30,000 U.S.-residing adults who represent existing business owners, former business owners, prospective entrepreneurs, freelancers, and gig workers. The survey seeks to understand the pathways people take toward business ownership and self-employment and the factors that support and inhibit entrepreneurship. Two more surveys are planned for 2025 and 2026.
Methodology
The EPOP Survey’s target population is all non-institutionalized adults 18 years or older in the United States. The study sample is selected from three frame sources:
1) NORC’s AmeriSpeak® Panel
2) An addressed-based sample (ABS) frame built from the U.S. Postal Service Delivery Sequence (DSF) file
3) A sample from opt-in panels
Samples selected from the AmeriSpeak Panel and the ABS frame are probability samples with explicit stratification and known sample selection probabilities, while the surveys from opt-in panels are a nonprobability sample with unknown frame coverage and unknown selection probabilities.
EPOP:2024 data collection started on February 28, 2024, with the release of the AmeriSpeak sample. NORC mailed ABS advanced letters on March 8, 2024. Data collection for both ABS and AmeriSpeak samples ended on June 14, 2024. Data were also collected from the non-probability sample between May 30, 2024, and July 5, 2024.
Data were primarily collected via an online survey; computer-assisted telephone interviewing was a secondary mode and available upon request. The survey was available in both English and Spanish. All participants were compensated for their participation.
Complete surveys from the three sample sources were combined using NORC’s TrueNorth weighting method to generate a set of combined sample weights for estimation.
About NORC at the University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.
Contact: For more information, please contact Eric Young at NORC at young-eric@norc.org or (703) 217-6814 (cell).
About the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is a private, nonpartisan foundation based in Kansas City, Mo., which seeks to build inclusive prosperity through a prepared workforce and entrepreneur-focused economic development. The Foundation uses its $3 billion in assets to change conditions, address root causes, and break down systemic barriers so that all people—regardless of race, gender, or geography—have the opportunity to achieve economic stability, mobility, and prosperity. For more information, visit Kauffman.org and connect with us.
