Retirement

Older Americans Are Starting More Businesses Than Ever

Retire, reboot, become an entrepreneur.

4019P_SSOL_ENTREPRENEUR_01 — Illustration: Inkee Wang for Bloomberg Businessweek

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By Chris Farrell

September 20, 2019 at 10:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the September 23, 2019 issue of businessweek.

Wondering what to do next now that retirement looms? How about starting a business? Seriously.

The 55- to 64-year-old age group accounted for 26% of new entrepreneurs in 2017, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. That’s a significant increase over the 15% figure from 1996. Research by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows the same age group has the highest rate of business startup activity globally over the past decade.