New small businesses that have the highest rate of survival can be found in Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, according to the SBA.
In an annual report titled, Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories from the agency's Office of Advocacy, research revealed the top states that had the highest rate of survival between 2007 and 2012.
Rounding out the list were Iowa, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Alaska and New York.
The SBA said its team of economists combed through multiple sources of data including statistics from the U.S. Census to determine which states fared the best and worst when it came to small business start-ups and growth. The agency defined small business as those firms with 500 employees or less.
The top states with the highest small business employment were California, Texas, New York Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina.
The SBA also found that the top states with the highest share of employment by small firms were Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Vermont, Maine, Idaho, Oregon, New Mexico and Rhode Island.
U.S. small businesses employed about half or 55 million of the nation's private workforce in 2011, according to the report. Firms with fewer than 100 employees had the largest share of small business employment.
The three industries with the most small business employment were health care and social assistance, accommodation and food services, and retail trade, the research revealed.
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