Business ownership plays a significant role in wealth creation and accumulation, and can help address the racial wealth gap in the U.S. while also creating jobs and stimulating the economy more broadly.

In 2017, a significant majority of businesses in MetroWest were owned by white people (80.2%), followed by Asian (8.4%), Hispanic (1.5%) and African Americans (1.1%). MetroWest's shares of Hispanic and African American-owned businesses were lower than the state (1.5% Hispanic, 1.4% African American) and the nation (5.6% Hispanic, 2.2% African American).

Among comparison counties, Norfolk had the highest percentage of businesses owned by African Americans (1.3%), Middlesex had the highest percentage of Asian and Hispanic (9.3% and 1.6% respectively) and Worcester had the highest percentage of white-owned businesses (83.2%). Middlesex had no African American-owned businesses and Worcester had no Hispanic-owned businesses.

The lack of equal opportunities for wealth accumulation and systemic racism in the banking industry both contribute to these disparities. Would-be businesses owners of color have significantly less investment capital than their white peers due to historic discrimination in housing, a traditional method for accumulating personal wealth, and in the lending industry through both housing and corporate redlining.

Annual Business Survey (ABS) data are sourced from a combination of responses to the survey, data from the economic census, and administrative records data. The ABS only include tabulations for employer businesses, which are businesses with paid employees. The Annual Business Survey uses the collection year (the year the survey was collected) in the survey name rather than the reference year (the year the survey collects data on).