Entrepreneurial education in most economies continues to be assessed as poor by national entrepreneurship experts, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2023/2024 Global Report, titled 25 Years and Growing. It’s been 25 years since GEM began assessing the state of the art of entrepreneurship in the world. Over that time, entrepreneurship has taken its place on the global stage as a key component of the health of economies worldwide. However, some indicators like entrepreneurial education, have not changed much over time, thus requiring further action from policymakers and other stakeholders.

The global pandemic had a mixed effect on entrepreneurship across the world, according to the 2022/2023 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Global Report: Adapting to a “New Normal”. Based on interviews with over 175,000 individuals and experts from 51 economies, the report tracks the percentage of adults who are starting or running a new business (referred to as Total early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity or TEA). Countries have experienced variable impacts from the pandemic. Among the 38 economies that participated in GEM research both in 2019 (prior to the pandemic) and 2022, there were 12 that had a substantially higher level of TEA in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic, and 16 in which TEA dramatically levels fell. Meanwhile, in 10 of those economies, there was minimal change. All regions and income levels are represented in each group.

Entrepreneurs are increasingly seeing more business opportunities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Global Report entitled Opportunity Amid Disruption. In 2021, GEM’s Adult Population Survey (APS) featured at least 2,000 respondents across each of 47 economies. In 15 out of these 47 economies, more than half of those starting or running a new business agreed that the pandemic had led to new business opportunities. In 2020, this had been the case for just nine out of 46 economies.

The world is currently in the grip of a devastating pandemic, COVID-19, which has been causing widespread negative health, social and economic impacts. There is a pressing need for careful, authoritative and evidence-based assessment of the pandemic’s impacts on levels of entrepreneurial activity across the world, as well as on attitudes and ambitions. The new 2020/2021 GEM Global Report spells out how levels of entrepreneurial motivation and activity vary across the world. In doing so, it provides the world’s first evidence-based assessment of the impacts of COVID-19 on levels of entrepreneurship.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has been keeping its finger on the pulse of the state of entrepreneurship since 1999, both in terms of the state of the entrepreneurial mind-set, motivations, activities and ambition, and the national framework conditions required to allow entrepreneurship to flourish in an economy. In this, GEM’s “coming of age” 21st year, entrepreneurship is in the spotlight as never before, with multiple governments increasingly focused on putting into place policy frameworks and mechanisms to drive and promote entrepreneurship. Fifty economies participated in the GEM 2019 Adult Population Survey (APS), including 11 from the Middle East & Africa, eight from Asia & Pacific, eight from Latin America & Caribbean, and 23 from Europe & North America. Five of these economies are classified as low-income level, 12 as middle-income and the rest as high-income. Over 150,000 individuals participated in extended interviews as part of the GEM research in 2019. This is the solid evidence base for the GEM findings that are presented in this report

With its 2018 Adult Population Survey and National Expert Survey, GEM has completed 20 years of entrepreneurship research in economies from a wide range of regions and economic development levels around the world. This 20th anniversary report profiles 49 economies with respect to demographics, their potential impact, the diversity of forms they take, and their longer-term sustainability. A look back at 20 years shows how entrepreneurship has evolved over time in five countries (the United States, Brazil, Germany, Iran and China). Finally, the report looks outward at the environment for entrepreneurship, reporting on societal attitudes, self-perceptions and entrepreneurial affiliations with entrepreneurs, and then introducing the National Entrepreneurship Context Index, which ranks economies based on 12 indicators of the external context that can influence entrepreneurship.

UPDATED: 6th April 2018

The 2017/18 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports that entrepreneurship levels are stable or on the rise globally and that opportunity-driven entrepreneurship predominates. Fifty-four world economies participated in the 2017/18 GEM survey covering 68% of the world’s population and 86% of the world’s GDP.

The 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey represents the 18th consecutive year that GEM has tracked rates of entrepreneurship across multiple phases of entrepreneurial activity; assessed the characteristics, motivations and ambitions of entrepreneurs; and explored the attitudes societies have towards this activity. This report includes results based on 65 world economies completing the Adult Population Survey (APS) (between the ages of 18 and 64 years) and 66 economies completing the National Expert Survey (NES). GEM countries in the 2016 survey cover 69.2% of the world’s population and 84.9% of the world’s GDP.

The GEM 2014 Global Report finds that high levels of entrepreneurial optimism, ambition and innovation are vital to advancing economies. The report also finds that entrepreneurship worldwide has recovered from The Great Recession.