women-seattlechartPortland and Seattle are among the top ten cities for women-owned businesses, according to a new report released this week. Both cities moved up in the ranking, with Portland showing the biggest gains as it jumped to second slot behind San Antonio. Seattle just made it into the top 10, moving up from the 11th slot. (See chart above).

women-topstatesWhat’s interesting about the results is that Seattle and Portland both ranked high in the employment category, even though they didn’t fare as well in sheer number of women-owned firms. (Likely tied to smaller populations than cities such as Dallas, Atlanta and Houston).

The data was released as part of the third annual State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, commissioned by American Express.

And while Seattle fared well, Washington state’s ranking wasn’t quite as good. The state ranked 32nd, with growth of women-owned firms increasing 39.9 percent since 1997. That compared to 59 percent growth nationally.

According to the report, Washington had 172,100 women-owned firms, with more than half of those (95,100) in Seattle. That was a 22.3 percent increase over the period of 2002 to 2013, far better than San Francisco’s rate of growth. Here’s a closer look:

women-seattle5

You can view the entire report here.

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