Latinos are engaging their entrepreneurial spirit by opening restaurants, real estate offices and landscaping services, and more to the tune of more than 404,000 small businesses in the United States.
The report by the Fiscal Policy Institute breaks down business ownership between Latinos born in the United States and immigrant Latinos. Their choices of enterprises vary in the Top 15 list of Latino businesses.
Foreign-born Latino business owners pick restaurants as their top choices for business followed by landscaping services and building services. Latinos born in the U.S. choose a less manual approach. They favor real estate, restaurants and truck transportation. Combined between the two groups the top three choices are: restaurants, real estate and landscaping services.
The report also includes data on the three largest cities for small businesses owned by Latinos. Miami with about 65,000, or about 16%, has almost one in six of the U.S. Latino-owned small businesses. Los Angeles is next at about 10% followed by New York, which has approximately 37,000 or about 9%. Those three cities account for more than one-third of all Latino-owned small businesses.
Some of the least popular businesses for Latinos to own include: electronics stores; florists; used merchandise stores; pharmacies and drug stores; and building materials and supplies outlets.
Statistically, the three businesses that are least popular would be barber shops, bars, and chiropractors. The report does not explain why the least popular or most popular businesses are selected.
The Fiscal Policy Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and education organization committed to improving public policies and private practices to better economic and social conditions, according to its website.