There are lots of different numbers of small business failure. Intuit reports that 6M small businesses are started each year, while 5.5M go out of business. It is not clear where they got their data, or for what time period it applies.

A 1998 study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses tells a somewhat different story – 2.3M small businesses started and 1.3M stopped.

A 1998 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics also makes the pessimistic case – that 80% of small businesses survive their first year, 65% survive their second year and 55% survive their third year.