Asian Owned Firms Grow Rapidly in MN

Asian Owned Firms Grew Rapidly in MN Bruce P. Corrie, PhD corrie@csp.edu According to the latest data from the Economic Census Asian owned firms grew 44 percent compared to the overall growth rate of 8 percent in Minnesota. Minnesota ranked 8th in the nation for the growth in Asian owned firms. Since 1997 Apple Valley, Maple Grove, Maplewood, Oakdale and Woodbury were new cities with 100 or more Asian owned firms were located. Other cities were Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Eagan, Eden Prairie, Minneapolis, Plymouth, Richfield, Rochester, Roseville and Saint Paul. There were 8 counties with a significant presence of Asian owned firms: Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmsted, Ramsey, Scott, Stearns and Washington. Within ethnic groups, the largest number of Asian American firms with paid employees were Chinese, followed by Asian Indian and Vietnamese. No data was reported for Hmong firms which was unfortunate as we need a credible count of Hmong firms in Minnesota. The other surprise was a large increase in Filipino firms which from casual observation might be in part, an estimation error.