AS per OECD Report, entrepreneurs-in-the-making need cash to launch new businesses, but countries are far from equal when it comes to funding young, innovative and growth-oriented companies. Venture capitalists in Israel allocate more financing to young companies than any other country in the OECD, with the equivalent of 0.18% of GDP dedicated to seed, start-up and early development capital. The United States, Sweden and Finland are among the other leading providers of venture capital, and are not surprisingly also among the most entrepreneurial nations.

These are among the insights in the inaugural edition of Entrepreneurship at a Glance 2011, which gives an overview of entrepreneurship in OECD countries. Using indicators developed with the European Union’s statistical arm Eurostat, as well as those from national statistics offices, the report shows how access to finance, market conditions, regulatory frameworks and cultural perceptions can boost or harm entrepreneurial activity.

New data on enterprise creations and bankruptcies shows the major impact that the economic and financial crisis has had on entrepreneurial activity. After a significant decrease in the second half of 2008, the number of new enterprises started to recover around the first half of 2009 in most countries. However, by the second quarter of 2010, the number of newly created enterprises was still below its pre-crisis level in most countries.