Study: Pandemic trend could reverse decline of rural startups

The rate of rural entrepreneurship has decreased by 50% since 1978, but there has been a spike in new rural business filings in the last two years, according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The Rural Innovation Report by the Wisconsin Startup Coalition and the University of Wisconsin Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics looked at the state of rural innovation in Wisconsin and found that in 1978, there were 16 new businesses per 1,000 workers in rural Wisconsin. By 2018, the rate was eight new businesses per 1,000 workers. However, in the last two years, that decline has been less severe and new business filings have grown from about 3,500 new businesses per month in the state before the pandemic to more than 5,000 per month this year.