There’s a lot of data out there on business generation.

A count of new businesses could be used, for example, as an indicator of general business conditions, particularly if the parent analysis included the right controls.

A quick peek at the univariate distribution will offer clues.

The data comes from the City of New York Department of Consumer Affairs. It’s a tally, by year, of the firms or people securing and holding a City license so that they may “legally operate in New York City”. It excludes, for whatever reason, sightseeing guides and temporary street fair vendors, but that can’t be a big number we I’ll call it the population of City license-holders.