Miami ranks as a top metro area for women-owned businesses

South Florida is one of the 10 best places in the country for women entrepreneurs to start a business, according to a new study.

Miami ranks sixth on CoworkingCafe’s list of large metropolitan areas for female-owned businesses. CoworkingCafe, a national directory for coworking workspaces.

The company did the study as a way of identifying which metropolitan areas have the best economic conditions for woman entrepreneurs to launch a business.

For entrepreneur Karine Melissa Purchas, working in Miami has its benefits. Purchas is the president of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Miami-Dade County and appreciates the community of woman business owners she has found in South Florida.

“We feel more supported here because of the ecosystems that surround us here,” Purchas said. “WCOC is a group of women entrepreneurs in different industries, and we are also a support system for each other.”

Miami is among four Florida metro areas to make the list. The Jacksonville area ranked seventh, Orlando eighth and Tampa ninth. The list considers large metropolitan areas to have 1 million or more residents. For this study, Miami is considered the South Florida area, which includes Miami-Dade and Broward.

But owning a business as a woman isn’t without its challenges, Coworking Cafe said, with an income average still behind men. “The data paints a picture of a country where women’s entrepreneurship is growing faster than ever, yet the conditions for success remain far from equal.”

The company analyzed 210 metropolitan areas across 14 categories using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and Annual Business Survey, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau’s Business Formation statistics.

Here are some key takeaways from the study:

Number of women-owned businesses

Women-owned businesses make up 25% of the total in the Miami metro region.

Boost to the economy

Woman-owned businesses employ 229,133 workers in the Miami area. That ranks Miami 8 in the top 10 of American metros with a high amount of female-owned businesses.

Top-ranked metro areas for women-owned businesses

1. Austin, Texas
2. Denver, Colorado
3. Raleigh, North Carolina
4. Washington, D.C.
5. Atlanta, Georgia
6. Miami, Florida
7. Jacksonville, Florida
8. Orlando, Florida
9. Tampa, Florida
10. Charlotte, North Carolina

Miami hotspot for startups

Miami is ranked first in the amount of businesses started among large markets regardless of gender. Miami also ranks first in self-employment, with 15.7% of Miami professionals owning their own business.

This story was originally published April 28, 2026 at 1:57 PM.

Michael Butler

Miami Herald

Michael Butler writes about minority business and trends that affect marginalized professionals in South Florida. As a business reporter for the Miami Herald, he tells inclusive stories that reflect South Florida’s diversity. Just like Miami’s diverse population, Butler, a Temple University graduate, has both local roots and a Panamanian heritage.