Measuring women’s entrepreneurial activity is critically important for a better understanding of how female entrepreneurs contribute to the economy and society. The lack of comprehensive sex-disaggregated data on business entry and ownership presents a significant obstacle to the global and diversified analysis of female entrepreneurship. Due to insufficient standardized and country-comparable data, the diagnostics of gender gaps in entrepreneurship are limited.
In here, to measure female entrepreneurial activity, annual data is collected directly from 73 company registrars on the number of female/male business owners of LLCs, female/ male sole proprietors and female/ male directors of LLCs, over the past four years.

The importance of female entrepreneurship for economic development is widely recognized. Numerous studies demonstrate the positive impact of female entrepreneurs on economic growth and development, as well as sustainable and durable peace. Moreover, economies characterized by high levels of female entrepreneurial activity are more resilient to financial crises and experience economic slowdowns less frequently. Despite different methodologies, these studies find significant socioeconomic benefits of female entrepreneurship.
Number of female business owners
The definition of entrepreneurship used is limited to the formal sector. Yet, it should be noted that the exclusion of the informal sector is based on the difficulties of quantifying the number of firms that compose it, rather than on its relevance for developing economies. The Entrepreneurship Database facilitates the analysis of the growth of the formal private sector and the identification of factors that encourage firms to begin operations in or transition to the formal sector. Data is collected all limited liability corporations regardless of size. Partnerships and sole proprietorships are not considered in the analysis due to the differences with respect to their definition and regulation worldwide. Data on the number of total or closed firms are not included due to heterogeneity in how these entities are defined and measured.

The data itself only provides a snapshot of a given economy's business demographics, and cannot by itself explain the factors that affect the business creation cycle. However, when the Entrepreneurship Database is combined with other data such as the Doing Business Report, Investment Climate Assessments, and/or OECD Entrepreneurship Indicators, researchers and policymakers can better understand the dynamics of the business creation process.
Number of female business owners is the number of female individuals that own at least one share of a limited liability company that was newly registered in the calendar year.
Data are collected by the World Bank Group’s Entrepreneurship Database.  To facilitate cross-country comparability, the Entrepreneurship Database employs a consistent unit of measurement, source of information, and concept of entrepreneurship that is applicable and available among the diverse sample of participating economies.

The data collection process involves telephone interviews and email correspondence with business registries in 73 economies. The main sources of information for this study are national business registries. In a limited number of cases where the business registry was unable to provide the data - most often due to an absence of digitized registration systems - the Entrepreneurship Database uses other alternatives sources, such as statistical agencies, tax and labor agencies, chambers of commerce, and private vendors or publicly available data.

The data includes all limited liability corporations regardless of size. Partnerships and sole proprietorships are not considered in the analysis due to the differences with respect to their definition and regulation worldwide. Data on the number of total or closed firms are not included due to heterogeneity in how these entities are defined and measured.