The rapid recent growth of Hispanic-owned businesses in New York is outpacing the rest of the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released today.

The figures, based on an analysis of surveys taken in 1997 and 2002, show that the number of Hispanic-owned firms in New York grew 57%, nearly double the national rate of Hispanic-owned firms and more than five times the national average for all businesses.

Nationally, the nearly 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses constituted 7% of nonfarm companies and generated $22 billion in revenue in 2002, up 19% from 1997. In the tri-state area, there were 225,000 Hispanic-owned businesses, constituting more than 10% of the national total.

America‘s mushrooming Hispanic population, now estimated to be 43 million people, is the most obvious explanation for the business boom. About 8% of America‘s Hispanics live in New York, which is tied with Florida for the third-largest share after California and Texas, according to 2000 census statistics. In recent years there has been a trend away from these traditional settlement areas to new states, particularly in the Southeast. This switch is reflected in the findings released today: After New York, the fastest growth sites for Hispanic-owned firms were Rhode Island and Georgia, followed by South Carolina and Nevada.

The president of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Michael Barrera, said that what helped New York outperform other states was the combination of a strong Hispanic base population, a diversifying and expanding community, and a relatively strong local economy. “It’s not a monolithic market,” he said. “Hispanics are growing within the Hispanic market.”

Puerto Ricans and Dominicans continue to dominate entrepreneurship in the state, but Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Mexicans are increasingly important players. For example, the majority of the members of the New York Statewide Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce are now Dominican, but Mexicans showed the most recent growth.

Nationwide, the study found retail and wholesale accounted for nearly a third of Hispanic-owned business revenue, while nearly a third were in construction and other personal services such as repair and maintenance.

The president of the New York Statewide Coalition of Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, Frank Garcia, said he has seen a change in who is handling traditionally Hispanic-owned jobs, such as bodegas, as well as the group’s expansion into new industries.

“The Mexican community is growing very fast. They bought the bodegas from the Dominicans,” he said, noting that the bodega, once dominated by Puerto Ricans, has now become a tradition to be used as a launching pad to other entrepreneurship ventures.

Meanwhile, national corporations are increasingly interested in buying from the more established Hispanic producers. “The reason why Hispanic businesses are growing so rapidly is because of corporate America‘s new interest in the supply diversity programs,” Mr. Garcia, who recently organized a conference with Wal-Mart in New York, said.

The owner of Arcos Communications, Roy Cosme, noted that when he started his company 10 years ago there were few firms in the New York market providing public relations aimed at the Hispanic community. Today, it’s a crowded market.

He said a change came after the release of the 2000 census, which reported that Hispanics had replaced blacks as the largest minority, “A lot of corporate businesses have finally seen the value of marketing to Hispanics,” he said.

While noting such gains, the president of the Latinos in Information and Technology Association, Jose Marquez, said the wave of Hispanic entrepreneurship is just beginning to hit the city. “Education has been a major focus in the last 10 or 20 years,” he said. “We’re graduating smarter students who are not necessarily looking at corporate America as a way to get smarter.”

In her work as president of the New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce, Quenia Abreu said she also had noticed more Hispanics, particularly those with higher education credentials, opting to go into business on their own as they received more support from economic development organizations and became disillusioned with corporate options. “The reason they choose to own a business is there is no longer the job security, work the corporate ladder, and by the time I’m 60 I’m going to be fine,” she said. “Companies don’t really have that loyalty and so they’re looking for other options that can give them security.”

On the other side of the spectrum, for the poorly educated and the illegal immigrant segment of the city’s Hispanic population, entrepreneurship also has proved a lucrative alternative. Hispanic businessmen noted this, and said it provides fuel to the argument that immigrants are contributing to the country’s economy and that Congress, which is currently debating how to reform the system, needs to open more legal avenues.

“It’s important to realize when you want to keep people out, you may also be keeping out the future success stories of tomorrow,” Mr. Barrera, of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said. Citing a strong economy where there were more than 2 million jobs created in the past two months and the unemployment rate is 4.7%, lower than in the 1980s or 1990s, he concluded, “Immigration is not costing people jobs, it actually helps to create those jobs.”