Minority-owned firms doubled the growth rate of national firms from 2002 to 2007, according to recent census data.

In 2002 minority firms numbered 4.0 million and in 2007 they numbered 5.8 million, a 45.5 percent increase for all minority-owned firms, and a rate that is also double the 17.9 percent increase for all U.S. businesses.

The 2007 Survey of Business Owners: Company Survey, which every five years breaks down and provides by gender, race, ethnicity and veteran status, the statistics on minority and non-minority businesses.

"Just as the 2010 census has documented our increasingly diverse population, so too the Survey of Business Owners demonstrates the increasing diversity of U.S. business ownership," said Tom Mesenbourg, deputy director of the Census Bureau.

There was also an increase to 766,533, or 21.7 percent, of the amount of minority-owned firms that had paid employees.

California had the largest number of minority firms at 1.2 million. Los Angeles alone had 466,312. Other top states included Texas, with 723,057 minority-owned firms and Florida with 680,069 minority-owned firms, or 11.8 percent of all minority owned firms.

Due to survey methodology changes, the 2002 and 2007 data are not comparable for the following types of businesses: equally owned by men and women, equally owned by Hispanics and non-Hispanics, owned by non-Hispanics and equally owned by minorities and non-minorities.

The Survey of Business Owners defines minority-owned firms as firms in which Blacks, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asians, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders or Hispanics own 51 percent or more of the equity, interest or stock of the business.

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