The Southeast has the largest number of small business start-ups in the country, with new business applications reaching a record 16 million. Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), joins SBA Regional Administrator Allen Thomas in celebrating new Census data showing 5.5 million new business applications were filed in 2023. This included 1.4 million applications in the Southeast, of which nearly 19 percent were in Georgia. This represents the third consecutive year of historic small business growth across the nation and the highest number of new business applications coming from the Southeast—the most in the nation. “More Americans than ever are pursuing their dreams of business ownership as the rate of new business applications filed and establishments under President Biden continues to surge,” said Administrator Guzman.