\u201cThis is down from 45.4% last year.”<\/p>\n
He added that South Africa’s performance was “dismal” when compared to the global average of just over 50%, ranking South Africa 55th out of 62 economies surveyed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that the current political and economic malaise in the country has seriously dented the fragile entrepreneurial spirit in the country helping to accelerate the decline of this critical sector that we look to to create much needed jobs in the country,\u201d said Herrington.<\/p>\n Only 35.0% of South Africans now believe that there is a good opportunity to start a firm in the area in which they live, compared to 40.9% last year.<\/p>\n More disconcertingly says Herrington, is the number of South Africans of working age who intend to start their own business within the next three years has fallen by more than a third<\/strong> compared to 2013, and almost halved since 2010.<\/p>\n \u201cJust 10.1% of the adult population between the ages of 18 and 64 now intends to open a new business,\u201d said Herrington.<\/p>\n \u201cJust four years ago this number was 15.4%, and in 2010 it was at a high of 19.6%.\u201d<\/p>\n This figure is way below the African region as a whole, where 41.6% of people of working age intend to become entrepreneurs. It is also less than half of the 26.0% of people in similarly structured (efficiency-driven) economies around the world who plan to open their own firms.<\/p>\n The GEM measure of Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity, which looks at actual participation in the entrepreneurial process, has also been declining sharply. By this measure, South Africa has fallen from 22nd out of 69 countries in 2012 to 46th out of 65 countries this year.<\/p>\nPositives\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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