Los Angeles County led the nation in the number of Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and Alaska Native-owned firms in 2012, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. It also ranked second in the number of Black and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned firms (after Cook County, Ill., and Honolulu County, Hawaii, respectively).

Collectively, Los Angeles County was home to 631,218 minority-owned firms: 332,967 Hispanic, 213,203 Asian, 81,563 Black, 11,081 American Indian and Alaska Native, and 3,798 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.  Consequently, with 3.2 percent of the nation's total population, the county was home to 7.9 percent of its minority-owned businesses in 2012.

The majority of firms in Los Angeles County (55.0 percent) were minority-owned. This includes 29.0 percent Hispanic-owned, 18.6 percent Asian-owned, 7.1 percent black-owned, 1.0 percent owned by American Indians and Alaska Natives, and 0.3 percent Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned.

These findings for Los Angeles County are an example of the diversity in the Greater Los Angeles area, as well as its progressive approach to small business development.

Nationally, the census findings show the number of minority-owned firms in the U.S. rose from 5.8 million in 2007 to 8.0 million in 2012. This includes a 46.3 percent increase in the number of Hispanic-owned firms over the period, from 2.3 million to 3.3 million, and a 34.5 percent rise in the number of black-owned firms, from 1.9 million to 2.6 million.

The 9.9 million women-owned firms in 2012 were up more than 2 million from five years earlier when there were 7.8 million women-owned businesses, a 26.8 percent increase. As a comparison, male-owned firms increased 6.8 percent from 13.9 million to 14.8 million during the same period.