Another day, another survey.

The accountancy firm Mazars, working with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, identifies the “high expectation” entrepreneur – those who expect to hire more than 20 people in the next five years.

It’s a useful classification. A commitment to recruitment is a statement of ambition, notwithstanding the problems and hurdles of finding and retaining the right employees as well as dealing with all the burdens of local employment legislation.

This group, the firm argues, make a disproportionately large contribution to economic prosperity and job creation. While just 1.7 per cent of entrepreneurs globally plan to employ more than 100 people within the next five years, this ambitious group will create half of all expected new jobs by start-ups worldwide.Principal findings?

China has more high-expectation entrepreneurs than any other country, with 17 in every 1,000 adults rated thus. This level of start-up ambition, say Mazars, is far ahead of other low-income economies. The USA has the second highest prevalence, with 15 in every 1,000 US adults are rated as a “high expectation” entrepreneur.

Sadly, it’s just four in every 1,000 European adults – the lowest proportion of all world regions – although there are pronounced regional differences. The proportion in Ireland is nine out of 1,000 and the UK seven out of 1,000. Compare that to Spain – two in 1,000 – and Greece – one in 1,000.

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