American states with the highest percentages of people with entrepreneurial personalities are clustered in the West; the top nine are Colorado, Utah, South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Montana, according to data collected by Martin Obschonka of Friedrich Schiller University in Germany and a team of researchers from hundreds of thousands of people who filled out questionnaires online. And, indeed, much of the country’s entrepreneurial activity, as defined by the rate of nonbusiness owners who start new nonagricultural businesses, occurs in the West. The bold pioneers who settled the American West may have left their genetic imprint on today’s inhabitants, the researchers suggest.
SOURCE: Where entrepreneurship is at home