RALEIGH – North Carolina is buzzing with entrepreneurial activity, but what does the data tell us?

Apparently, not that much.

“It’s sort of a surprise that we don’t have good data on new entrepreneurial startups across the state,” Maryann Feldman, research director at UNC Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, told a 300-strong crowd gathered at the Hilton Raleigh North Hills for the NC Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Summit on Monday.

So she and her team of researchers are working to build a database.

So far, she offered up this snapshot: North Carolina is averaging 4.4 firm registrations per 1,000 residents. That’s based on registrations with the North Carolina Secretary of State in 2018.

The good news: Every one of North Carolina’s 100 counties does have some new business activity, she said.

However, it tends to be concentrated in the six urban counties – Mecklenburg, Wake, Forsyth, Orange, Durham, Guilford.

Mecklenburg and Wake counties were among the highest with a ratios of 7.67 and 7.12, respectively. Durham came up behind with a ratio of  5.24.

“My research group has been calling this the I-85 technology corridor,” she said.

This doesn’t bode well for the state’s rural counties.  And as far as NC IDEA Foundation’s CEO Thom Ruhe is concerned, more needs to be done.

NC IDEA Foundation CEO Thom Ruhe speaking at the NC Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Summit on Monday.

He warned that around a quarter of the state’s citizens — around 22.8 percent — are living with economic distress.

“Distressed communities are disconnected communities,” he said as part of his opening remarks for the two-day summit.

His solution: “We need to engage more people with the entrepreneurial mindset.”