EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Among its key findings for Black-owned businesses, the report shows that while Black-owned businesses in Wisconsin nearly quadrupled in number between 1997 and 2012, black-owned businesses are still underrepresented relative to the state’s population. In 2019, the share of Wisconsin’s population which identified as Black or African American was 6.44%, yet Black-owned businesses only made up 4.30% of the state’s businesses. Further, Black-owned businesses are generally smaller in terms of sales and employment. For example, for every dollar generated by non-Hispanic white-owned businesses with employees, Black-owned employer businesses made $0.42 on average. The performance gap results from several compounding challenges, including access to financing and the location of their businesses, which are fundamentally tied to the racial-wealth gap.
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