LendingTree's 2024 Boomer Entrepreneurs Report

Whether you’re 18 or 65, owning a business is challenging, with no guaranteed path to success. While many factors contribute to a business’s chance of survival, the obstacles and opportunities you face shift as you get older. Age may be an asset to older business owners seeking funding but can hinder navigating day-to-day responsibilities.

LendingTree’s 2024 Boomer Entrepreneurs Report utilizes five metrics to look at how business owners 55 and older fare in each state, with them thriving in Connecticut but struggling in Idaho. Here’s a full look.

Key findings

• More than half of U.S. businesses are owned by people 55 and older. According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2022 Annual Business Survey, 52.3% of business owners are 55 or older — 29.5% are 55 to 64 and 22.8% are 65 and older.
• Connecticut tops our 2024 Boomer Entrepreneurs Report. The Constitution State finishes no lower than 16th across our five metrics, highlighted by the fourth-highest share of businesses owned by Americans 55 and older. Additionally, the state is among the top 10 for its rate of businesses saying their current performance is at least above average, while business owners feel similarly optimistic about their future performance.
• Wyoming and the District of Columbia follow. The Equality State dominates LendingTree’s rankings with four top-five finishes, including the second-highest future performance expectations and the third-highest growth in businesses owned by older adults. That growth will be key in the future, as the state finishes 45th for its share of businesses owned by older adults. Meanwhile, D.C. finishes first in three of five metrics but places poorly in the others, preventing it from ranking higher.
• Idaho finishes as the worst state for boomer entrepreneurs. It has the second-lowest share of businesses owned by people 55 and older and the third-lowest growth on this front. It secured the last spot even though it has the third-highest percentage of the 55-and-older working population that’s self-employed.
• Two of the biggest states — California and New York — join Idaho in the bottom three. Recent headlines — “How California ended up with the worst business climate in America” and “High taxes are bleeding New York’s people and businesses into oblivion” — help explain where they landed in our report. Both states have bottom-10 rankings in three of our five metrics.

For the full report, click here. Our thanks to LendingTree for this report.