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Intro: The Journal Register Co.’s ongoing multi-media series on the 2010 census helps readers understand who we are and how we live. This story was reported and compiled by New Haven Register reporter Angela Carter.

Click above to hear David Hinson, national director of the Minority Business Development Agency, explain trends and challenges among minority entrepreneurs.

The number of minority-owned businesses increased nationally by 46 percent to 5.8 million between 2002 and 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency announced Tuesday.

"There should be no doubt that the minority business community is no secondary group," David Hinson, national director of the Minority Business Development Agency, said.

Thomas Mesenbourg, deputy director of the Census Bureau, said that even though growth among businesses is outpacing population growth, there is a direct correlation. "It's not a surprise the states with the largest numbers of minority-owned businesses are the states with the largest minority populations," he said.

The numbers are the latest survey data available. The business ownership data by gender, ethnicity, race and veteran status is released every five years.

 Mesenbourg said more detailed statistics will be released periodically over the next year.

Future data, officials said, is expected to reflect how the recession affected entrepreneurs in the targeted categories.

In Connecticut, there were 14, 676 companies owned by blacks in 2007, compared to 10,309 in 2002. Sales and receipts among black-owned firms in Connecticut rose by 43.7 percent, going from $723.3 million in 2002 to just over $1 billion in 2007.

Hinson said that even though minority businesses are growing at a faster rate than the minority population across the country, parity with firms owned by non-minorities remains "elusive."

All firms, however, are offering quality products and services and create jobs that are comparable in salary and benefits offerings, Hinson said.

Among Hispanic enterprises, 14,043 existed in the state in 2007 with $2.5 billion in receipts, up from 9,408 firms in 2002 with $1.2 billion in receipts.

Hinson said minority business owners must begin to focus on growth through mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and global expansion.

Some of the barriers MBDA helps entrepreneurs overcome include less access to capital, contracts and new markets.

The MBDA promotes minority business growth and now has a nationwide network of 45 business centers that help entrepreneurs through exposure to consulting services, contract and financing opportunities, bonding and certification services and building business-to-business alliances.

"Minority-owned firms are relatively recent to the game in earnest," Hinson said.

There were 93,521 women-owned businesses statewide in 2007, compared to 82,118 in 2002. Their receipts increased by 18 percent from $12.2 billion in 2002 to $14.4 billion in 2007.

The number of companies owned by whites in Connecticut grew from 271,665 in 2002 up to 291,723 in 2007, with receipts jumping by 39.5 percent from $119.4 billion in 2002 to $166.6 billion in 2007.

In 2007, there were 492,052 veteran-owned firms nationwide employing 5.9 million persons with a total payroll of $214.0 billion. These firms generated $1.1 trillion in receipts. Employer firms accounted for 20.1 percent of the total number of veteran-owned firms, and 92.4 percent of veteran-owned firms’ gross receipts. The average receipts for these employer firms was $2.3 million.