Data Hub
Microbusiness Data Hub
Welcome to the GoDaddy Microbusiness Data Hub, offering unprecedented access to free, downloadable data on more than 20 million microbusinesses and the entrepreneurs who own them. The first-of-its-kind data and insights will be updated quarterly with refreshed measurements of microbusiness density, our proprietary Microbusiness Activity Index, and new survey responses from select markets across the United States. Please reach out to the Venture Forward team with any additional dataset requests.
Recent Posts
- What Small Businesses Tell Us About the Economy That Wall Street Can’tWhat Small Businesses Tell Us About the Economy That Wall Street Can’t
- Forbes: Meet Alex Rosen, the Small Business Savant Mixing Art & CommerceForbes: Meet Alex Rosen, the Small Business Savant Mixing Art & Commerce
- Why 2026 May Favor the Small & Connected
- Discover the Most Entrepreneurial Cities of 2025Discover the Most Entrepreneurial Cities of 2025
- Entrepreneurial Power Rankings in Pro Football CitiesEntrepreneurial Power Rankings in Pro Football Cities
Recent Reports
- What Small Businesses Tell Us About the Economy That Wall Street Can’tWhat Small Businesses Tell Us About the Economy That Wall Street Can’t
- Digital Microbusinesses and Local Economic Outcomes in the UK 2025 UpdateDigital Microbusinesses and Local Economic Outcomes in the UK 2025 Update
- Microbusiness Activity Index 2025 Annual UpdateMAI 2025 Annual Update
- UCLA Anderson: The Impact of AI on MicrobusinessesUCLA Anderson: The Impact of AI on Microbusinesses
Entrepreneur Survey Results
The Entrepreneur Survey results provide unparalleled insight directly from over 70,000 microbusiness entrepreneurs. Since 2019, our team has conducted these surveys across four counties and over 20 cities. Some questions have trending for years, while others are added topically, e.g. about inflation, AI use, side-hustles.
*Each country is surveyed once a year, and dates are reflected in the files.
Microbusiness Density
Download this dataset to get a comprehensive insight into the quantity and distribution of active small and micro-businesses across various countries at several geographic grains, including: city center, metro, county, and state in the United States, SA3 and SA4 in Australia, Parliamentary Constituency and regions in the United Kingdom, Province in Canada and national for all countries, normalized by population.
Updated quarterly, microbusiness density is a powerful tool for understanding where microbusinesses are taking hold and how those patterns are changing over time. These measures help identify relationships to other key economic outcomes, such as unemployment, job creation, and household median income gains – all affected by microbusinesses.
To learn more about how we define Microbusiness Density, visit the FAQ’s here.
Microbusiness Industry and Commerce
Our Industry and Commerce dataset provides insight into the online commercial activity trends of microbusinesses by industry throughout the four countries our data covers (US, UK, Canada, Australia).
This unique dataset provides the top five industries based on the number of sellers, orders, and gross merchandise value (GMV) observed, providing a new lens into how online business is distributed across the economy.
To learn more about our microbusiness industry and commerce data, visit the FAQ’s here.
U.S. Microbusiness Activity Index
How active and healthy is a community’s performance with respect to microbusinesses?
Developed by economists at the UCLA Anderson Forecast in partnership with GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab (formerly Venture Forward), the Microbusiness Activity Index tracks dozens of factors that impact the success of online microbusinesses – all captured in one composite score. The score is made up of three subindices: infrastructure, participation, and engagement.
Updated quarterly, use this score to benchmark your community against others and track the effectiveness of programs to help microbusinesses thrive. The Index provides the most up-to-date snapshot of microbusiness health at the county, metropolitan, state, and national levels.
To learn more about the MAI dataset and our methodology, visit the FAQ’s here.
Data in Action
GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab (formerly Venture Forward) is dedicated to gathering and analyzing data around microbusinesses, and leveraging those insights to support local efforts that empower the everyday entrepreneurs who own them. Our research team synthesizes GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab data with U.S. Census and other third party data to reveal how microbusinesses contribute to more prosperous and resilient economies. In turn, we make our data and insights available to anyone who shares our vision for stronger, more inclusive and healthy communities.
UCLA Anderson Forecast Microbusiness Activity Index 2023 Q2 Update
This report is the 2023 Q2 update and contains data up to June 2023 for the U.S nation, states, metropolitan areas, and counties. Download the report to view highlights and an in-depth analysis of MAI data over time.
Milken Institute: An In-Depth Study of Digital Microbusinesses Leveraging Best Performing Cities and GoDaddy's Microbusiness Activity Indices
This October report combines results from the Best Performing Cities Index (BPC) and GoDaddy’s Microbusiness Activity Index (MAI) to examine what may be happening in the economies of a selection of cities in the two rankings, essentially looking at the impact microbusinesses are having in the selected economies.
GoDaddy's data and resources were leveraged to help build a community of committed entrepreneurs with the experience, talent and resources to help each other succeed in Baltimore, MD.
"Our microbusiness density is three times the national average. We feature that statistic from Venture Forward on our website, and make a point of sharing it on the first day of our six-week Empower Baltimore program to help local businesses boost their digital presence. We want people to know that our city is unique – that we’ve got a lot of people with hustle, who are making things happen."
–Michelle Geiss, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Baltimore Impact Hub
Harvard Business Review: "The Rise of Everyday Entrepreneurs and Their Economic Impact"
In this data-backed report, the authors leverage data from Brookings Institute, US Census, and Venture Forward in-concert to discuss the variety of benefits online microbusinesses bring to their communities, who benefits most and what those benefits are, and how policymakers can encourage the creation of more microbusinesses.
Brookings: Microbusinesses boomed during the pandemic. Now, local leaders need to support them.
The COVID-19 pandemic delivered a massive shock to America’s workers – one result of this was a burst of microbusiness startups. But because microbusiness patterns of growth vary from state to state and community to community, local economic development officials need to understand these entrepreneurs in order to help them succeed.